


Persistence of Memory

by kandilynn



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Alpha Pack, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, M/M, Magic!Stiles, Nothing Canon after season 2, Pack Dynamics, alternate Hale Pack, angsty, magic!Lydia, memory sharing, pack history, season 3 doesn't exist, stiles is pack
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-09-08
Updated: 2014-04-14
Packaged: 2017-11-13 19:46:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 44,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/507077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kandilynn/pseuds/kandilynn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even when he was bat shit crazy, Peter Hale knew that the pack needed Stiles. Now, he just needs to show Stiles that he belongs with the pack. OR, the one where Peter and Mama Stilinski were best friends.</p><p>(I started writing this well before season 3 aired so none of the names or characters for the Alpha pack or the Hale pack are the same.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic for AO3. It's also my first chapter fic and the first I've written for Teen Wolf. I have no beta, so all mistakes belong to me. I would love feedback.

Stiles wasn’t surprised to see a werewolf in his room when he got there, he just wished it wasn’t this one. Peter Hale. Zombie werewolf extraordinaire.

 

“PETER! OHMYFUCKINGGOD! What are you _doing_ in here?!” Stiles started backpedaling fast trying to get away but just ended up falling toward the door. Peter moved quickly to grab Stiles’ arm and steady him before backing away holding his hands up if to say ‘I’m unarmed and I don’t want to hurt you.’ _Yeah, right._

Stiles quickly started searching the area looking for anything he could use as a weapon. Peter Hale was freaking crazy if he thought Stiles would go down without a fight.

 

“Ephraim! Stop. Listen to me.” Peter tried to keep his voice calm, he was pretty sure Stiles wouldn’t take well to werewolf posturing.

           

Stiles froze and narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “How do you know my real name?”

 

“Easy. Because your mother was my best friend.” Peter shrugged and kind of smiled a little. “Had been since,” he tapped his chin in thought. “ninth grade, I believe.” Stiles was at a rare loss for words as he stared wide eyed at Peter in disbelief.

 

“You have to be lying. My mom would never have been friends with a monster like you.” Stiles spoke through gritted teeth. “You are lying!” Stile repeated. “Whatever you want me to do, the answer is NO!. So, you can leave now.” Stiles tried to feign disinterest, but his heart was pounding furiously.

 

“She was my friend. For years, I’m surprised you don’t remember us, but I guess that has to do with the fact that you were only 8 when the fire happened.” Stiles continued to train eyes narrowed stubbornly on Peter. Peter sighed heavily and announced, “I can prove it.”

 

Curiosity and suspicion battled it out across Stiles’ face and he fidgeted while trying to make a decision shifting his weight back and forth on the balls of his feet.  Peter knew he had Stiles when finally curiosity won out and Stiles crossed his arms. “How.” Stiles demanded.

 

Peter let out the breath he didn’t know he was holding. Relief flooded his features and he let go of Stiles’ hands. “Werewolves can share memories. I can show you my memories connected to your mother. If you can trust me...” He trailed off and took a step back. “I won’t hurt you, not really, but you have to trust me.”

 

Excitement, interest, and curiosity flashed across Stiles’ face. “What? How can you...? That is _so_ cool! Well, what are you waiting fo.... wait! You said not really. You said ‘I won’t hurt you, not really.’ What does that mean?”

 

“It can be painful. Especially to someone who isn’t a werewolf.” Peter looked around the room. “Do you mind if we sit down, this could take a while to explain.” Stiles shrugged and gestured at the bed. If Peter was out to kill him, he would have done it already, and it’s not like Stiles was physically capable of kicking him out of the house, and his dad was at work forming a search party for Erica and Boyd. Peter strolled across the room and took off his jacket. He laid the jacket across the head of the bed and sat down beside it. He kicked off his shoes and put one knee on the bed, getting comfortable.

 

“Dude! I didn’t say you could just move in!” Stiles sputtered. Peter just looked at him with a slightly amused expression. “Fine just make yourself at home, why don’t you? Mi casa es wolf casa and all of that.” He threw his hand in the air exasperation.

 

“Would you like me to continue now?”  Stiles nodded. “Like I was saying, werewolves can share memories, if they know how. It can be used to teach new or young wolves about the history of their pack. Or it can help mates bond with each other.”

 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa... There will be no mating going on here, ALRIGHT!? NONE!”

 

Peter rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Seriously? You actually think I came over here and told you that your mother was my best friend just to get in your pants.”

 

Stiles laughed. “Well, I have to admit that that would be the worst pick up line in the entire history of pick up lines.”

 

“Okay. Moving on.” Peter shot Stiles a look that seemed to say ‘No more interruptions.’ Stiles shrugged as if to say ‘Hey, ADHD, I can’t help it.’ “So, it helps mates bond with each other. Especially if they aren’t a true mated pair. Sometimes werewolves will choose a mate for the good of their pack, someone strong and intelligent who will make a good addition to the pack. For example, me and my wife Emily. We had to create a bond so our wolves would accept the mating. Others, like my brother, Mark and his wife, Luna- Derek’s parents- had an immediate connection and they didn’t need to create the bond. But this, basically, is just another way to share information. We just use thoughts instead of words, gestures, or expressions.”

 

Stiles had been pacing but now he moved to sit at the foot of the bed, leaning forward with curiosity and excitement flashing across his face. “So, how does it work?” He asked.

 

Peter held up his hands and let his claws extract. “Claws. They aren’t just tools of murder and mayhem.”

 

Stiles looked apprehensive. “You have to claw me!?”

 

“No, just one claw.” He reached around Stiles and touched the back of his neck. “Right there. It will hurt like... getting a shot would. Then, I will establish a psychic connection, and send you memories.” He paused. “But I won’t do it unless you want me to.”

 

“Why? Why did you come here? Why is it important to you that I see these memories?” Stiles couldn’t help the suspicious tone that his words took. And Peter couldn’t blame him for being suspicious.

 

Peter sighed heavily. “We need you. The pack, Derek and I, everyone, needs you. There is trouble coming. A pack made up entirely of alphas is coming, and if Derek doesn’t have a strong bond with his pack, we will all die.”

 

“So? What can I do about that?” Stiles glared at Peter. Why did he have to do anything? What on earth could he possibly do to make Derek have a strong pack?

 

“You’d be surprised at how much value you can be to the pack, but first I need to show you that I’m not the same person that I was when Derek first came to Beacon Hills. I need you to understand. I was feral back then, I was out of control. I do have one warning. Once the psychic link is established, it might have residual effects for a couple of days. I can control the visions and memories that you see when I’m here, but I can’t control what you see when I’m not. It may not all be PG-13, but there are things that I’d really like to show you.” He looked Stiles in the eye, a silent plea. “So, if you don’t want this, you can say no and I won’t ask you again, but you can change your mind at any time.”

 

“I have a feeling I’m going to regret this...” Stiles let out a dramatic sigh. “Oh, go ahead.” Peter moved closer to Stiles, and put his hand on the back of his head. “Just gonna be a little pinch.” Stiles hissed when the claw broke the skin.

 

All of the sudden, Stiles head was swimming with images. They moved so fast he can’t lock on to any of them. **_Stiles, don’t move your head._ ** Stiles heard Peter’s voice inside his head. ** _If you can hear me, just think whatever you need to say at me. If you need a break or want to quit, just tell me and I’ll stop._**

****

**_Okay,_** Stiles thought back at Peter. **_How weird is it that I can hear you inside my head?_**

****

Peter ignored the question. **_Okay, here goes nothing._** And then Stiles was thrown into the first memory.

 

*****

Peter ran to catch up with Jeanie in the hallway. “Hi, Jeanie.”

 

**_Mom!_** Stiles wanted to cry just seeing her. **_She was so beautiful._**

****

**_That she was,_** Peter agreed. **_She can’t hear you, this is just a memory._**

****

**_I know that!_** Stiles sulked. **_I just... miss her._**

****

**_Me, too._ **

****

Jeanie looked up and grinned. “Hey, wolf-boy!” Peter panicked. Maybe telling a human his secret had been a bad idea. His entire family had vetted her by interrogation and they all listened to her heartbeat and everything and his brothers had said it should be alright to tell her and now here she was in the middle of the school broadcasting it to everyone.

 

“Shhhh!” His arms flailed as he hissed “That’s a secret! You can’t. tell. anyone.”

 

“I know. I was just teasing you.” She laughed and touched his arm. “Besides,” She gestured at the empty hallway. “No one is listening to us.”

 

Peter laughed at himself and shrugged it off. “Can’t ever be too careful.”

 

“So, now that I know about the Hale Family Secret, can I come over today and research in the infamous Hale library? I want to know what else is real.” Her eyes sparkled with excitement and curiosity.

 

    “I have basketball practice right now, but you can come over for dinner, around 6, if you want?” Peter held his breath and looked at his feet, hopefully hiding the blush creeping onto his cheeks.

 

“Sure! Sounds good.” Peter looked up at her and she smiled at him. “Well, do well at basketball practice and,” She mocked a cheerleader pose, “Be aggressive, B-E aggressive. But not too aggressive in case you lose control and,” she leaned right up to his ear and whispered, “wolf out!” She giggled and backed away. “I’ll see you at 6!” She waved and walked away.

 

 

 

******

 

Peter and Jeanie were sitting in the Hale library one day in late Spring. Jeanie had several books open in front of her, a few about myths and one very large tome of magic. She had been really interested in magic lately. She was an amazing asset to the pack. She always, always, always came through when they needed her. Unfortunately, Peter’s father didn’t think so. He didn’t trust her because she was a human. End of story. At first, when he thought that she might be Peter’s mate, Matthew Hale had tolerated her. Now,  when it was clear that she only considered Peter a friend, Matthew didn’t even want to be in the same room with her. But Peter trusted her and so did Mark who was training to be alpha, and Robert who was going to be Mark’s second in command.

 

Peter was supposed to be doing Physics homework, but mostly he was watching Jeanie. She was deeply enthralled in her book and was chewing on the end of her pen. Every few minutes she would get really excited and would start babbling about how something she read in another book related to the one she was reading, then she would start scrabbling through the other books trying to find what she was referring to, but she would inevitably see something interesting in one of the books and forget what she was looking for. And the cycle would continue.

 

Peter loved Jeanie. She was beautiful. She was smart. She was funny. But he loved her most of all for her strong moral compass. Peter, having grown up in a pack of wolves, was morally ambiguous. He was taught that if something was good for the pack, then it was right. If it was detrimental to the pack, then it was bad. Jeanie was his own Jiminy Cricket. She always knew what was the right thing to do. She accepted his faults, but she always pointed him in the right direction. And she had taught him that knowledge is better, in some ways, than strength.

 

Matthew Hale ruled the pack with strength. He took training very seriously. The betas earned their place in the pack by proving their worth on the battlefield. The pack consisted of his siblings and his children and a few bitten soldiers. Florence, the matriarch of the family, was bitten when Matthew chose her as his mate. She had chosen to leave her human family.  They weren’t involved with the pack, so Peter never met his maternal family. Before Peter met Jeanie, he accepted his family and the dynamics of the pack without question. Strength is important, but what he discovered from Jeanie is that intelligence, diplomacy, and acceptance could be even more important. He would never be alpha, he had two older brothers in line before him, but he could use his knowledge, knowledge that he wouldn’t even have if it weren’t for Jeanie, to change things for the future generations of the Hale Pack.

 

Jeanie pushed the books away from her and turned to look at Peter. “I think I need a break for a while.”

 

“Good. So...” Peter ventured. He had learned never to interrupt her when she was reading. It always ended with things being thrown at him.

 

“Yes?”

 

“You know how I’ve been saying we need to change the way that our pack is run? Well, every once in awhile an omega comes to town and camps out for a while until my father runs them off. Recently, I’ve been finding them first and talking to them, getting information about other packs and how they are run.” Jeanie leaned closer to him and Peter knew that he had piqued her interest. “Apparently, there is a pack in Colorado, the Stone pack, that lives on a big commune. They take in Omegas who need a new pack. They also have werewolves, humans, and magic users that live and work with their pack. They have humans _in their pack_ , Jeanie!” Jeanie had leaned so far forward that the chair tipped out from under her. Peter moved quickly to catch her and righted her chair.

 

“That sounds amazing.” She whispered breathlessly. “Is it true, though?”

 

“I haven’t gotten to the best part, yet.” Peter added. “I found  information on the pack. I called and talked to the alpha, Luna Stone, and she invited me and Mark as our future alpha to come to her commune and see her pack! She is only 18 and she’s already been alpha for a year!”

 

“Really?” Peter nodded. “So, are you going?”

           

Peter’s face fell. “I haven’t talked to Mark about it. If my dad knew about it, he would not want us to go and I’m sure Mark will do whatever Father wants. Unless...”

 

“Unless...what? OH! Unless your dad thought it was Mark’s idea in the first place.”

 

“What’s my idea?” The two teens turned to see Mark and Robert standing in the door. And of course, Mark wasn’t wearing a shirt. He liked it when Jeanie ogled him.

 

“Oh nothing important.” Jeanie giggled. _Giggled._ Peter glared at Jeanie mutinously but she ignored him. “What are you guys up to?” She asked flirtatiously. She was even fluttering her eyelashes. Peter definitely saw eyelash fluttering going on.

 

“Well, we definitely aren’s planning on spending our day in a dusty old library.” Mark teased.

 

“Yeah, we are going for a run in the sun.” Robert said, grinning. Jeanie giggled again. Peter groaned and rolled his eyes at his brother’s rhyme. “Well see ya!” The older boys turned and left the room. Jeanie gaped at them as the left.

 

“Shut your mouth, Jean, you just got drool all down your shirt.” Peter teased but there was a slightly bitter tone that he couldn’t keep out of his voice.

 

Jeanie grinned and playfully slapped at him. “You know, I’ll talk to Mark. I’ll make sure he wants to go and visit the Stone pack. Don’t worry about it.” Peter wasn’t worried. He knew when he suggested it that if Jeanie set her mind to it, they would be going to see the Stone pack.

Jeanie jumped up and ran out of the room, “Hey, Mark, wait up! I want to talk to you about something!”

 

**_Ewww. Dude, you were totally into my mom!_** Stiles interjected.

 

**_Do you blame me? Your mom was an amazing woman._ **

****

**_I guess not._** Stiles replied thoughtfully.

 

Peter was surprised that Stiles had managed to stay patient throughout the entire memory. **_Do you need a break? We can always continue tomorrow._** Peter knew that there was a lot more to show Stiles than he could possibly show him in a couple of days, but he didn’t want to show him too much too soon.

 

**_No, it’s fine. We can keep going! I think the memories are keeping me focused, so I can definitely see at least a little more._ **

****

**_I’d really like to show you what happened when we met the Stone pack. Your mother wasn’t there at the time, but it’s when Derek’s parents first met, and it was really an important time in Hale pack history._ **

****

**_Well, I_ want _to see and learn everything about my mom, but I really want to learn about Derek’s parents, too. So, if you will keep coming back and showing me things, I guess I can learn about the Stone pack first._**

 

**_I’ll show you anything you want to see, but I can’t promise you that it will all be pretty._ **

****

**_Okay._ **


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter and Mark visit the Stone Pack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Possible Trigger Warning: This chapter contains a conversation about an abusive relationship.

 

 

“So how is Colorado?”

 

Peter switched the phone to his other ear. “It’s nice, really. The Stone pack all seem like nice people. Weird factoid about this pack though, all the kids that are 10 and under share a bed. They have this huge playroom that has 2 king sized mattresses shoved together and all of the kids pile on top of each other and sleep. All of them, humans and weres.”

 

“I bet that’s adorable.” Jeanie gushed.

 

“Yeah, it is. My dad had us all sleep in separate bunks, he called our rooms barracks. When you’re a kid you gravitate towards the other kids, you feel safe and protected when you’re all together. Apparently, in this pack, even the humans feel the need to be close to their pack members.” He paused for a minute. “Okay, so, you know how I told you that the alpha here is named Luna?”

 

“Uh-huh.”

 

“Well, her sister’s name is Lycana. Then there’s Jack and the other one is Wolf.”

 

Jeanie started giggling. “Oh my god. Really? You aren’t joking right?”

           

Peter laughed. “No, I’m really not making this up.”

 

“What does Wolf look like? A wolf?”

           

“She’s actually gorgeous, but she’d have to be with a name like that, right?”

 

“But why Jack, the others are all moons and wolves, how does the name Jack fit in?”

           

“Oh get this, his full name is... Jack London Stone.”

 

“Call of the Wild!” Jeanie started full on cackling on the other end of the phone line. Peter laughed along with her until they both had trouble catching their breath.

 

“I really miss you, Jean.” He whispered.

 

“Miss you too, Wolf-boy.”

 

There was silence on both sides of the line for a minute. Finally Peter spoke. “Well, I guess I better get off here and go make sure my brother isn’t hitting on the Stone pack alpha again.”

 

“What!? He’s hitting on the alpha! Is she pretty? Tomorrow you lead with that!” Then she hung up. The room with the phone had music studio quality soundproofing, it really couldn’t keep a werewolf from overhearing a conversation, but they had to be actively listening to hear what you were saying. The Stone pack was huge and Peter was feeling a little bit overwhelmed, so he decided to take a minute and collect himself in the small sitting room.

 

The Stones were incredibly nice, generous, and peaceful. Peter and Mark had only been in Colorado for a week and already felt like they were among family. Mark and Luna had become smitten with each other the second they met and Mark had taken to shadowing Luna during all of her alpha tasks. There were probably about 45 people that lived and worked on the Stone farm on a daily basis. Others chose to live outside the pack’s headquarters, but they always came by to hang out or attend pack meetings.

 

The matriarch of the Stone family, Mariah, was in her 50s with curly brown hair and kind eyes. She and her late husband, Douglas, were the alpha pair of the pack until her husband had been killed last year. Their daughter, Luna, took over most of the alpha duties and Mariah focused mainly on the commune and anything that wasn’t directly related to pack business.

 

Luna, from what Peter had seen, was an incredible alpha. She was kind and strong, a peaceful warrior. She knew every member of the packs’ strengths and weaknesses. Instead of berating them for their weaknesses, she had found a way to put members of her pack to work together in teams which minimized the weaknesses and made the members of the group complement each other. By continually shifting the people around into different groups, she created stronger bonds and trust among the betas, humans, and witches of her pack.

 

Lycana had big blue eyes and a gentle heart. She spent her days outside, working with the animals. All of the animals seemed to have respect for her, even the geese, which Peter was sure were out to get him. Lycana was always with a boy about 14 named Alan Deaton. He had powerful magic, being descended from Salem witches on his mothers’ side, and his father was an Obeah shaman. His family lived on the commune and helped out when they could, but they didn’t actually join the pack. One of the first days Peter was there, a goat was having a kid, but it was in breach and there was a lot of blood. The men were sure that they weren’t going to make it, but Lycana took away the goat’s pain and Alan fixed it with a little magic and a little science.

 

Jack was quiet, stoic. He was a ninja. No, really. He trained in several disciplines of martial arts. He was proficient with over 25 weapons. He had this theory that in order to have complete control over your wolf at all times you needed to achieve balance- mind, body, spirit, and wolf. If Jack wasn’t putting himself through grueling martial arts training, he was reading or meditating. He was in complete command of his wolf. His senses were honed. They were on par with his sisters’, and she was the alpha. And Peter was completely fascinated with him.

 

Wolf was the feisty one. Eager. Fierce. Edgy. Dauntless. She was the first to pick a fight or join a fight that someone else picked. But she never hurt anyone. Peter thought he was going to have a heart attack that first night when a group got into a fight over the tv remote. Wolf wolfed out and the rest of the wolves followed her. Even Peter and Mark were wolfed out. Humans and witches joined the fray, but the wolves, including Wolf, pulled their punches and no one got hurt. They did, however, forget about the remote and a completely human Jack stepped in between them and snagged the remote while they were fighting. Wolf was the last to shift back.

 

Peter left the room and ran directly into Jack. “Sorry.” Peter grinned sheepishly and tried to go around him but Jack grabbed him and leaned in to smell him. Peter took that opportunity to take a whiff himself and he had to admit that for someone who spent the last 4 hours training in kung-fu he smelled amazing. Looked amazing too.

 

He was 16, a year younger than Peter and a couple of inches shorter. He had unruly curly hair that hung to his shoulders and piercing grey-green eyes that caught Peter’s and held his gaze. He wasn’t wearing a shirt and Peter couldn’t help but notice that the muscles on his abs were lean and defined. Peter was filled with the sudden desire to run his hands down the other boys’ taut stomach. He leaned forward a little to do just that, but Jack took a step backward and smiled at him and _whoa, dimples!_ Peter moved to fill the space between them and push their...

 

 ** _Um...Peter? This is getting into seriously uncomfortable territory here!_** Stiles suddenly interjected.

           

**_Oh! Sorry, Stiles. But nothing actually happened right then because his mother showed up. So, moving on._ **

****

 

“Hi, mom,” Jack smiled sheepishly over Peter’s shoulder. Peter quickly turned around moving away from Jack to an appropriate distance.

 

“Hello, Jack. I hope you haven’t been bothering our guest.” Mariah looked at Jack with a knowing grin and a slightly raised eyebrow. Peter ventured a glance at Jack and notice that he his cheeks were slightly flushed and his ears were red.

 

“No, he wasn’t bothering me at all, Mrs. Stone.” Peter smiled at the pack matriarch.

 

“Peter, please, call me Mariah.” She smiled at the two boys before looking at her son. “Jack, if you wouldn’t mind, I would like to talk to Peter.” Jack nodded and walked away. “Do you have a few minutes to talk to an old woman, Peter?” Peter nodded. “Great! Follow me.” She turned and started walking and Peter hurried to catch up.

 

As they walked through the huge house, they passed several people. The humans smiled and addressed her as Mariah. The werewolves all bowed their heads and called her Mother Alpha. Mariah smiled and greeted each person by name, asking them questions and occasionally stopping to hear complaints. She lead him to the massive kitchen next. The kitchen had a commercial walk in freezer as well as a walk in cooler; a massive double sink beside a commercial dishwasher; a walk in pantry that would put a survivalist prepper to shame; two island countertops both with sinks, garbage disposals, trash compactors and six burner stovetops, and two double oven units built into the wall.

 

“Wow! This kitchen is amazing!” Peter looked around. There were 3 men, 2 women, and several teenagers doing various kitchen chores and food prep. The only one not working was Wolf Stone. Wolf was sitting on one of the bar stools obviously flirting with the teenage girl who was peeling potatoes beside her.

 

The human girl had her blonde hair pulled up in a high side ponytail, her black t shirt had geometric neon designs on it advertising Kimmy Black’s School of Dance. She was wearing hot pink short shorts and lots of clunky bright colored jewelry. She was also wearing way too much makeup. In fact the only understated thing on her entire person was her white socks and canvas tennis shoes.  Wolf, on the other hand was wearing boys board shorts and a boys tank with no bra. She wasn’t wearing any shoes. Her short, dark, punky hair had about two inches of shorter shaved hair around her ears and it was disheveled. She was wearing lots of bracelets and necklaces that looked like they were made in summer camp, woven colored threads, leather, plastic lanyard material, and pony beads were wrapped in various combinations around her wrists and neck. She wasn’t wearing a stitch of makeup, and her lips were chapped and cracking from biting on them. Her big blue eyes were expressive and rimmed with long dark eyelashes. She was confident, cocky even, and the other girl was laughing and blushing.

 

“Wolf if you aren’t going to help Elizabeth peel those potatoes, get out of the kitchen!” Mariah ordered. Wolf shrugged, jumped off the barstool, winked at Elizabeth and started sauntering out of the room. When she passed by her mother, Mariah caught her by the arm and whispered low enough that only the wolves in the room could hear, “Quit flirting with Elizabeth, she’s almost 18, but more than that, you’re only 14 and you are way too young to be seriously involved with anyone.”

 

“Okay, Mom.” Wolf said dramatically, but she looked at Peter and raised her eyebrows suggestively with a half-smirk.

 

Mariah’s eyes started to glow, the alpha red faded to a burnt orange, “Get out of here, Wolf.” Wolf meeped and giggled as she skittered away, looking like the 14 year old girl she was. “Well, I don’t pull the alpha card very much anymore, but sometimes I have to use it for that girl.”

 

“How are you still alpha, I thought Luna was the alpha of this pack?” Peter asked.

 

Mariah continued walking through the kitchen as she answered. “Luna is the alpha, but my husband and I were an alpha pair, when he died my daughter took his place. I am still an alpha in name only, I don’t take on any of the duties or responsibilities, and when my daughter finds a mate, I will gladly pass my title to her mate.”

 

“My mother was turned after they were married and mated, so she’s always been a beta.” Peter explained.

 

Mariah nodded. “We weren’t always alphas, in fact when we first met we were both omegas.” At Peter’s surprised expression, Mariah laughed. She stopped and opened a door ushering him into her study, she gestured for him to sit in one of the big leather armchairs and she sat in the other one before continuing. “When I met Douglas, I was 25 and he was 57. He was too much of a free spirit to work within a structured pack dynamic and had left his pack as a teenager. He traveled the world, met a lot of people, did a lot of drugs. He was made to be a lone wolf. I, on the other hand, was a pack loyalist all the way. I was the alpha’s first and only daughter, I was also the firstborn, but my pack didn’t allow female alphas. When it came time for my father to pass his title on, it went to my brother, Rick.”

 

She sighed heavily, “I should have just left right then. Rick had a mean streak a mile wide. He named his buddy, a sadistic bastard named Cephus as his second. One day, my brother informed me that I was going to be mated to Cephus, I wasn’t given a choice in the matter. I went along with it, because the alpha rules. Cephus would stay out late running with Rick, then he would come home and rape me. As a female and the offspring of an alpha, I was physically stronger and could withstand more pain than he could and technically I could have beaten him in a fight, but he was second in command, the only wolf in the pack that held more authority was Rick, and he didn’t care about me at all. So, Cephus ordered and I obeyed. I wanted to fight, but my wolf would cower. My wolf didn’t control my mouth though, and I would argue and he would beat me harder and longer. It was hell, but I still didn’t run, I didn’t even consider the possibility. I thought running would make me weak, that I needed the protection of the pack.” She stood and walked over to the mini-bar she had in the room. She held up a carafe of water, “I need a glass of water. Would you like some, too?” Peter nodded and she brought him a glass before continuing her story.

 

“I healed. The beatings didn’t hurt me permanently, at least in any physical way, but I soon started having miscarriages. I guess the cubs inside me couldn’t handle the beatings. I never told Cephus about the miscarriages, he would have blamed them on me, on my weakness. It was after my fourth miscarriage when I realized that being an omega could not possibly be worse than the life that I had. I knew there was a possibility that they would find me and kill me, which was actually the best case scenario if they caught me, but I didn’t care anymore. I thought of those babies that Cephus beat out of me. And I knew that if there was any chance of escaping I had to take it.” She took a long shaky breath. “I was so broken and beaten down that I was submissive to my husband and my pack, I couldn’t run right then. I started telling myself everyday ‘ _I am an omega. I don’t belong to this pack. I submit to no one. And I will leave.’_ I started getting a little stronger and a little more in control of myself every day. And one day, my brother issued me an order and I didn’t feel the urge to comply. And then I ran. They tried to find me at first, they got really close several times. Cephus got so close I could smell him. I tried to change my scent. I ate asparagus every day for 3 months. Eventually, they quit looking, but I was weak. No pack. No family. No friends. Then I found Douglas Stone. We fell in love, mated, became an alpha pair, settled down here, and raised a pack of our own. We took in omegas running from other packs, and we vetted anyone that was interested in living and working with us here on the farm. Now we are 40 strong, 18 werewolves and 22 humans, most of which can do some type of magic. We also have a huge network of omegas that come and go. I assumed that you would be interested in the origins of our pack, since you came here to find out how our pack was run.”

 

“I am interested. I am amazed by what you have gone through and how you built this amazing pack out of nothing. My brother is going to be alpha soon, and I am grateful for opportunity, as I am sure he is, to get to learn from this pack. Being here can only be beneficial to our pack in the future.”

 ******

 ** _It’s getting late, and I don’t want to overwhelm you. If you want, I’ll come back tomorrow_**. Peter promised, carefully extracting his claw. Stiles slumped forward and Peter caught him, steadying him until he slowly blinked. “You will feel a little woozy for a few hours. Just go to bed and you will be fine tomorrow.”

 

“What if I have questions?” Stiles asked dreamily.

 

“You can ask me anything tomorrow.” Peter promised while ducking out the window.

 

Stiles pulled his clothes off and crashed. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter we will catch up to the present.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to try to update more regularly than this. I had a sinus infection and didn't feel like writing. Still no beta, so all the mistakes are my own. I had to make the fire 8 years ago instead of 10 for reasons.

Stiles woke up early, a vision from Peter pulling him out of his slumber.

_Peter was standing in a barn watching Alan Deaton doing magic. The younger boy had an obvious crush on him and Peter was a little flattered. Lycana had cornered him earlier in the week and warned him to be kind to Alan and to let him down easy.  But the boy was nice and Peter honestly liked the attention. Not to mention, when he spent a lot of time with Alan, Jack turned in to a scenting ninja._

_Jack had fallen into a pattern. Every few hours he would turn up out of nowhere, push Peter up against a wall until their scents intermingled, put his nose up to Peter’s clavicle and just breathe him in, and then he would disappear just as quickly as he appeared. It was a heady experience and Peter wanted more, thus he spent most of his free time with Alan giving him casual touches and nudges of encouragement. He supposed it was manipulative and if Jeanie were here she would say he was leading the Deaton boy on, but she wasn’t here and Peter resolved not to tell her. Problem solved._

_Lycana showed up to talk to Alan, and Peter ducked out of the barn. He went to find Jack. Peter thought about Jack constantly, his daytime fantasies getting more and more graphic every time he saw the other boy without his shirt on, but every single time he got a chance to do anything about it, they were interrupted, his brother or Jack’s family needing one or the other to do something._

_Peter looked for Jack everywhere but couldn’t find him. Disappointed, Peter went to the room that he was sharing with his brother and Jack followed him in pushing him against the wall. He stood inches away from Jack, just breathing him in, and was psyching himself up to kiss him when Wolf burst in the room._

_  
“Hey Jack, I was wondering if you could...” She looked pointedly at the two boys and threw her hands up. “Good GOD! JUST kiss him already! JEEZ!” Peter did just that. He sucked Jack’s bottom lip in between his teeth and bit down drawing a little blood. Jack’s eyes glowed yellow and he attacked Peter’s mouth with teeth and tongue, claws digging little pinpricks in the back of his shoulder. Wolf snickered, but they ignored her and she ducked out of the room with, “I’m just gonna... I’ll talk to you later.”_

Stiles tried to go back to sleep, it was still too early to wake up. But his mind was running crazy so he got up and started making a list of things to ask Peter.

1.)    Was it normal to be turned on by the people that Peter was turned on by in the visions?

2.)    Did Peter know what happened to Boyd and Erica?

3.)    Why did Peter kill Laura?

He was sure he would add more during the day.

Today was the first day back to school since the championship game. That was the night that Allison shot Boyd and Erica full of holes and strung them up in her basement; the night that Gerard tried to make Derek turn him and Scott pulled a plan out of his ass that he hadn’t even told Stiles about; the night that Jackson was killed, TWICE, and rose from the dead as a werewolf; the night that Stiles was held captive by Gerard and was beaten until he broke and told Gerard about the train station where Derek hid out; the night that Stiles won the lacrosse game.

He had told his dad and Scott that the opposing team had beaten him. He probably should have told Scott about Allison trying to kill Boyd and Erica, but it would break Scott’s heart to hear it, and besides Scott didn’t tell him everything either. There were too many secrets between him and his dad that he couldn’t very well tell him that the high school principal had two of his students strung up in his basement the last time that anyone saw them. And Stiles couldn’t bear the thought of Derek knowing he was as untrustworthy as Derek thought he was.

He sighed heavily and went to take a shower. He stopped at the mirror, touching the purple-green-yellow bruises on his face, another sign that he was a weak, fragile human. He debated talking to Derek about making him a werewolf, but his mother had known about werewolves and for some reason she had never turned. Besides, Derek hadn’t offered, so there had to be some reason Derek didn’t want him.

In the shower another vision caught him by surprise.

_Peter and Jack were in bed breathing heavily, Peter’s head was laying on Jack’s chest listening to his familiar heartbeat. His fingertips were tracing the muscles on Jack’s chest and stomach. Things were perfect. He had already started to think of Jack as his mate. Mark and Luna were planning to claim each other as mate at the end of the summer, which probably meant that Jack and the other Stones would be moving to Beacon Hills at the end of the summer. He and Jack wouldn’t be separated._

_“So,” Peter attempted to sound casual. “Mark and Luna are going to claim each other at the end of the summer.”_

_“Yeah,” Jack didn’t add too much to any conversation, but Peter loved him anyway. A small smile played at the corner of Peter’s lips._

_“Do you think that maybe we, um, someday, might…?” He trailed off._

_Jack shrugged. “Maybe, I don’t know.”_

_Peter pushed himself up to look at Jack’s face. “Well, that wasn’t a very positive answer.” His heart sank._

_“Don’t make that face Peter. You asked me. We still haven’t even graduated high school yet. After I graduate, I am going to China to learn kung-fu from the Shaolin monks. I’m going to travel all over and learn from the best. After that, when I choose a mate, I’d want it to be you.”_

_Peter sighed, disappointed. He couldn’t imagine being separated from Jack at all. He started to move to get out of bed, then Jack smiled and pulled him back._

_“Until then, I can think of a few ways to occupy our time.” Jack pushed him down onto the bed and leaned over him kissing him long and languidly, grinding their hips together in a way that made Peter forget how to think._

Stiles came out of the vision gasping. He was hard and he reached down and took himself into hand. He thought there was probably something fucked up about him that made him think of Peter’s old boyfriend while he was jacking off, but his mind supplied him with another broody werewolf with a penchant for throwing people into walls and in seconds he was coming, spilling onto his hand.

At school, everyone was talking about Jackson’s “incredible recovery.” Jackson and Lydia were cuddled up to each other all day. Allison didn’t even show up to school, which sucked because Stiles really wanted to ask her what had happened to Boyd and Erica. Isaac wasn’t at school either.

At lunch Stiles was watching Jackson and Lydia, laughing and smiling with all of the popular kids. They had regained their status as the ‘it’ couple. _Typical_ , Stiles thought _, I finally do something worth recognition and Jackson has to go and come back from the dead._

“What’s up with that?” Scott walked up and slammed his tray down on the table. “You win the championship game and everyone is still Jackson’s groupies?” And that is why Scott is still Stiles’ best friend.

During Chemistry, another one of Peter’s memories surfaced.

_A wolfed out Wolf was floating about 8 feet above the ground. The Stones were laughing and teasing her. A teenage girl, a redhead, was sitting on the floor flipping through a heavy book of magic. “I didn’t mean to do it!” The redhead cried. “She was playing drums really loudly and really badly, in a house full of werewolves! Jeffrey was making this high pitched whining noise and I came to tell her to stop. I didn’t do a spell or anything. I just told her to get over herself!”_

_Wolf started kicking and screaming. “I’m going to rip you apart!”_

_“You will do no such thing!” Mariah warned. She turned to Alan Deaton. “Can you work with Wendy to get her down, please?”_

Stiles came out of the vision laughing. It earned him detention.

When Stiles got home, his dad had already left for work. He researched for a while and added to his list of questions for Peter. He already had more than 100. Like, 67.) Do werewolves knot? for example. He didn’t know if he would ever get around to asking them, but Peter promised to answer his questions, so he wanted to be prepared.

Peter finally showed up, and Stiles decided to go with the question that has been bugging him the longest about Peter. “Why did you ask me? You just bit Scott and Lydia, but you asked me? Why was that?”

“I’m not 100% sure about that, but I suppose you have your mom to thank for that magical whammy.” Stiles looked at him skeptically and Peter shrugged. “It felt like magic, anyway. You can’t be turned without your permission. I wanted to turn you. To give you the gift of the bite. You smelled like pack and felt like pack and I needed pack. But I literally couldn’t without your consent.” He paused. “When I bit Scott, I was hiding out in the woods, I smelled guns and I felt unsafe, but then the wind shifted and I smelled pack. It was you, Stiles, because you are my godson, and were pack since the day you were born, but I didn’t know it at the time because I was out of my mind with anger and grief. So, I followed the scent. The boy I found smelled like pack on the surface, but he wasn’t deep down. In my mind at the time, the only remedy to the situation was to turn him. Lydia was pretty much the same thing. I thought I was doing the right thing, trying to build a new pack for protection against the Argents, against Kate. Every minute of every day of the last 6 years was clouded by fear and vengeance. I always thought she was going to come back for me, and for Laura and Derek.”

“6 years? But the fire was 8 years ago.” Stiles interrupted.

“Yes,” Peter nodded. “But for the first 2 years I still had Jeanie.”  Stiles was shocked. Six years ago when he lost his mother, Peter lost her, too.  Stiles tried to imagine a world where he had lost everyone that was important to him, and he imagined that he would be a little crazy, too.  And Peter’s family didn’t just die, they were murdered.

Stiles didn’t realize he was thinking out loud until Peter answered him. “To be honest, I blamed Kate and Laura for a lot of things, but most of all for Jeanie’s death.”

“What? My mom died of cancer. She wasn’t killed.”

“I know. Mesothelioma. After the fire, an environmental clean-up crew was supposed to go out, make sure the house was safe. But your mom wanted to protect our secret, so she beat them out there, and took anything that would even hint at the family being werewolves. There was asbestos in that old house. It was in the ceiling and the outside walls. She came to see me every day. Sat and talked to me until she got too sick to visit. I could smell the disease on her for months before she finally went to the doctor. I knew it, but I couldn’t warn her, couldn’t even move. She said she would have asked Laura for the bite, but Laura refused to make new wolves. Jeanie wanted to respect Laura’s wishes.”

Tears were stinging Stiles’ eyes. Until now, he had never considered the possibility that his mother could be living right now, if she had become a werewolf. Laura could have turned her. His heart was breaking all over again.

Peter cleared his throat. “Do you need time to process this? I can leave, give you some space?”

Stiles blinked and wiped away the tears. He could break down later; he needed to know more now. When he spoke again it was barely above a whisper. “No… what happened after you visited the Stone pack?”


	4. Chapter 4

This time it was easier, less painful. The memories swirled and Stiles was drawn immediately into the first one.  
  
 _The Hale and Stone families sat around a large conference table. Matthew and Florence Hale sat at one end of the table, Mark and Luna were at the opposite end. To Mark’s left sat Peter, Jack, and Jeanie; Mariah, Lycana, and Wolf sat to Luna’s right. There were two seats between Wolf Stone and Calliope Hale, who sat to the left of her mother. Robert split the difference between Jeanie and Matthew, one seat away from each side. He didn’t want to stand against his alpha, but he wanted to hear his brother out, too._  
  
 _“What is the_ _meaning_ _of this?” Matthew Hale stood bracing his hands on the edge of the table and glared across at Mark. “Do you mean to tell me that you would stand against your pack with a pack of_ _omegas_ _?” He spat the last word, like an insult._  
  
 _Wolf growled and began to shift. Mariah visibly bristled and her eyes glowed orange. “Wolf, if you cannot control yourself, you will be asked to leave.” Luna warned. Lycana laid her hand on top of Mariah’s and smiled at her mother, not to restrain her, just to remind her that her family loved and supported her. Mariah’s eyes went back to her normal hazel. Wolf took a deep breath and shifted back._  
  
 _Mark answered his father, “We have come to discuss our mating ceremony and the possible combining of two packs.”_  
  
 _“Fine! But this is pack business. Why is Peter’s human here? She has no say in anything.”_  
  
 _Jeanie cringed and Peter started to defend her, but Luna spoke up first. “Jeanie has been an asset to your pack. According to your sons, she has consistently provided important knowledge and research that has saved your pack and kept them alive for three years. She has done all of this with no recognition from her alpha. She will always have a place in my pack.” Luna looked to Jeanie and nodded once. Jeanie beamed proudly from the recognition of the alpha. Peter smiled at his best friend, and Robert reached across the empty chair to take his girlfriend’s hand in his._  
  
 ** _Wait! Wait! What? When did my mom date your brother?_** Stiles interrupted.  
  
 ** _They started dating while Mark and I were in Colorado. They broke up about 4 months after this meeting._** _Peter answered. **I’ll show you why later. Now, let me finish.**_  
  
 _Matthew finally sat down. “Well, you came all this way to talk. So, get on with it.”_  
 _“Luna and I are going to be married and claim each other as mates during the new moon in January, the wolf moon.” Mark started. “If I have not been named Alpha of the Hale Pack- which is my birthright, as your second- by that time, I will still become an alpha, as Luna’s mate. I will move to Colorado, as will Peter and...” Mark looked to Peter for confirmation. Peter held up 4 fingers. “Four of your bitten soldiers.” Matthew Hale reeled back in shock. “I will not challenge you for alpha, but if you lose that much of your pack you will be weakened and vulnerable.”_  
  
 _Peter jumped in, after a nod from both Mark and Luna, “However, if you choose to step down amicably, the Stone pack family and several of its’ higher ranking pack members will move here and join the Hale pack. Mariah will return to Colorado as Stone Pack Alpha.” Peter smiled across the table at the Stones. “The Hale pack will be strengthened with an Alpha Pair to lead them. It’s your choice, Father.”_  
  
 _Matthew Hale stood and glared at his sons. “My Choice?” He scoffed. “It seems you’ve left me no choice. You will be named alpha at the next full moon, Mark. I hope that you know what you are doing.” He turned to leave the room, beckoning his wife to follow him._  
  
 _“Oh, and Father?” Mark called after him. Matthew stopped walking but didn’t turn around. “I’ll be naming Peter as my second-in-command.” Matthew turned then shock and outrage on his face. There were gasps around the room. No one was more surprised that Peter and he looked at his brother in dumbfounded astonishment._  
  
 _“You will be alpha then; I suppose you can do whatever you want.” Matthew answered before turning and leaving the room._  
  
 _Jeanie let out an audible sigh of relief. Tensions eased, the Stones fell into their usual chatter and teasing. Robert came up behind Peter and Mark and clapped them both on the shoulder. “Congratulations, brothers!” He said smiling._  
  
 _Peter looked at Robert, “You aren’t upset? You were supposed to be the second.”_  
  
 _“No,” Robert answered. “No, I really am not upset. You have the pack’s best interests at heart. You have a clear vision of what the future of the pack should be. Without you and Jeanie, we might not have actually made it this far. If I was second, I would have run the pack exactly like my father. I wouldn’t have even known that there was a different way. I want the future that you see, where our kids run and play together and sleep together in a great big pile of comfort and safety instead of barracks.”_  
  
 _Peter felt tears welling up inside his eyelids. He was surprised and pleased that Robert thought so highly of him. He smiled and hugged his brother tightly. Then, Mark tackled them pushing them to the floor with a hug of his own. Soon, Jeanie joined in and Jack, Wolf, Luna and Lycana and they were all rolling around on the floor hugging and laughing and just being pack._  
  
 _When they all settled down, Luna looked to Mariah, “Mom, you don’t have to go back to Colorado, you know. You will always have a place here.”_  
  
 _Mariah gave a small smile. “I know.” She paused, thinking. “I will probably split my time between here and Colorado for a while, at least until Wolf graduates. But my home will always be there. Douglas and I built that place together, it was our dream.”_  
  
 _“Are you ready to jump back in the saddle as Stone Pack Alpha?” Peter teased._  
  
 _“No, I’ve thought about that. All of my children will follow their sister, as it should be. I don’t have an heir to take my legacy.” She sighed. “Cassandra and Maggie have been mated for a while. They came to my pack as runaways and they understand the importance of keeping the pack safe haven and a place of refuge. I am going to talk to Cassandra, and name her Pack Alpha.”_  
  
 _Peter was the first to answer, “Cassandra is smart and capable. I’m sure that she will be an extremely worthy alpha.”_  
  
 ** _Is Mariah still alive?_**  
  
 ** _No, she was visiting our pack during the Hale house fire._**  
  
 ** _What about this Cassandra? Is she still around? Do you think we could contact her, and maybe form some sort of alliance with her pack against the alpha pack? Do werewolves do that? Form alliances?_**  
  
 ** _That’s actually not a bad idea. Derek needs to get the pack sorted out and organized a little first. Otherwise, all of the betas will end up in Colorado._**  
  
 ** _*****_**  
 _Peter wasn’t quite sure why he was here. After all, Jeanie had broken up with his brother, not the other way around. He had about a thousand things to do for the pack but here he was sitting on her bed and watching her cry into a gallon of ice cream._  
  
 _“I didn’t want to do it.” Jeanie wailed. Peter turned the TV set off. If he had to listen to Jeanie cry he certainly didn’t need the Von Trapp Family singing about a damn cuckoo clock in the background. Seriously? Was she_ _trying_ _to give him a headache?_  
  
 _“Why did you then?” Peter huffed. “Obviously you two care about each other... I just don’t get it.”_  
  
 _“I love him. Like...pack. It’s comfortable. I want to be with him. I’m happy with him.” She started to sob._  
  
 _Peter pulled her close to him and pressed a kiss into her temple. “But... I know there’s a but in there somewhere.”_  
  
 _That elicited a bark of laughter from Jeanie. “But. But, we want different things. Ever since Luna got pregnant all he’s been talking about is babies. He says ‘someday’ but I can tell he wants a bonded mate and a family. I want to go to Berkeley and become a writer.” She sobs again and Peter brushes the tears away. “And you, you are deferring college for a year for pack obligations and I want to stay. I want to stay so bad, and I know if I do that I may not ever make it to college. I know that I would regret not going. Then there is the totally selfish reason that I don’t want to live with the pack. I want to have a place of my own where I’ll have peace and quiet to actually write something. I know this break-up is the right thing to do, but it just sucks so much.”_  
  
 _“Yeah. It’s all going to be okay, Jean.”_  
  
 _Jeanie shrugs and nods, “So, I forgot to even ask, how’s everything going with the pack. Are you ready to break ground for the additions to the house tomorrow?”_  
  
 _The Hale house was big enough for the original pack and several others, but the Stones brought 20 more people who wanted to stay connected with their communal lives. “We’ve started finding homes for everyone who doesn’t want to live in the house. The Martin’s- have you met Wendy?”_  
  
 _“Bossy, redheaded witch that’s always fighting with Wolf? Is it just me or is there a lot of sexual tension going on there?”_  
  
 _“Yeah, that’s the one. And no it’s not just you. So much sexual tension.”_  
  
 _“But isn’t Wolf like, 15?”_  
 __  
“Yes, but you know us werewolves. The wolf matures at age 10 and then we can’t contain all the sexy.” Jeanie snorted. “Laughing? Good, that’s so much better.” Peter smiled and reached for Jeanie’s hand, interweaving their fingers together. “Anyway- Wendy is really good at magic if you want someone to learn with- Wendy and Stephen’s parents wanted to stay in Colorado, and Wendy wanted to come to Beacon Hills. Stephen Martin and Jilly Amsterdam had just gotten married and Stephen didn’t want to live on the commune anymore anyway, so he agreed to move here with Wendy. We found them a house, a new subdivision is being built across the street from the Hale property. We had to pull a few strings, but now we are practically in their backyard. Now, Wendy can join the pack anytime she wants, and Stephen can stay out of it.”  
  
 _“Why does Stephen stay out of it? Does he do magic, too?”_  
  
 _“No, only the women in the Martin family are magically adept. Besides, Jilly didn’t ever visit the commune and she doesn’t know about the supernatural and he wants to keep it that way. I don’t know how he convinced her to move to California.”_  
  
 _“Wow, doesn’t he feel bad about that, lying to her like that?”_  
  
 _“Well, think of it this way, you’ve been involved with the pack for, what, 3 ½ years. In that time, you’ve dealt with faeries, sprites, ghosts, harpies, one terrifying cait sith, imps, gorgons, goblins, and changelings, did I leave anything out?”_  
  
 _“Elves, gnomes, gremlins, dryads, wraiths, and don’t forget the bad witches, shamans and warlocks.”_  
  
 _“Yeah, all of that. Now, Stephen’s been with the pack in Colorado his whole life. He’s probably seen more and a lot worse. I was only there two months and 6 werewolf packs came around to start a war over runaway omegas. It can be dangerous, especially for the humans involved. Wouldn’t you want to protect the ones you love?”  He shrugged. “I mean, if you didn’t see my eyes shift, I would never have told you about us.”_  
  
 _“Well, I’m glad you did.”_  
  
 _“Me, too.”_  
  
 _They both sat in silence for a while laying side by side and holding hands. “Do you think they are going to kick me out, because I broke up with Robert?”_  
  
 _Peter laughed, “Never. You’re pack. For Life. You’re stuck with us. Forever. We’d kick Robert out before we let go of you.”_  
  
 _“That’s good.” Jeanie yawned._  
  
 _“You’ll find someone, you’ll see. And hopefully he thinks that your attachment to my family and vice versa is endearing and sweet instead of weird.” Jeanie laughed and scooted closer to Peter. He curled into Jeanie and fell asleep to the sound of her breaths slowing into sleep, her smell surrounding him. Screw the rest of the pack’s business; he had a packmate and best friend who needed him right now._  
  
 ** _So, Stephen and Jilly-_**  
 **  
...Are Lydia’s parents, yes.**

 **_Does Lydia know-_ **  
  
**_...About magic? No._ **  
  
**_Is that how-_ **  
__  
...I used her to bring me back from the dead? Yes. She has magic in her; she just has not tapped into it, yet.  
  
 **_So did Wendy-_ **  
  
**_...Die in the fire? No. She came to see me, after. She was real spooked, was going to run._ **  
  
**_…_ **  
  
**_…_ **  
  
**_I think we should tell Lydia what’s been going on._ **  
  
_OK._  
  
 _********_  
  
 _Jeanie and Peter shared a 2 bedroom apartment right near Berkeley and it was awesome and he got to spend every day with his best friend in the whole world.  Except it wasn’t awesome right now.  Because now, Jeanie was rubbing her new boyfriend Jim Stilinski in Peter’s broken-hearted face. Okay, she wasn’t really, she was just out with her new boyfriend and she wasn’t here and he needed her._  
  
 _Peter was sitting in the dark, wallowing. He was listening to Richard Marx singing “Right Here Waiting” on repeat. It all started last month when Jack sprung on him that he was going to China for six months. Not just six months, he’d said_ _at least_ _six months. Then, he’d pretty much told him that they should take a break from their relationship until he got back and then they’d talk. Peter felt like he was falling apart. That his ventricles were twisted and shredded over and over in a deep pain that Wouldn’t. Fucking. Heal._  
  
 _He heard Jeanie outside, putting her key in the lock. “I’m just gonna check on him and see if he wants to go grab some food with us. He’s been in a bad place for a month or so, ever since his boyfriend went to China.”_  
  
 _Jim Stilinski let out a low whistle. “That’s gotta suck. I feel bad for the guy.”_

  
 _Jeanie sighed loudly when she entered the apartment. “That fucking song. This may be worse than I previously thought. Make yourself comfortable, I’ll be out as quick as I can, OK?”_  
  
 _Jim gave an affirmative hum and switched on the TV._  
  
 _“Hey, Petey.”  Jeanie closed the door behind her and climbed into bed, kicking her shoes off as she went. She curled into Peter pressing their foreheads together, her arms wrapping around him. This is what he needed, the comfort giving him the strength to rein in his sobbing and fade his glowing eyes. “So,” Jeanie whispered. “Jack’s a complete idiot for leaving you behind.”_  
  
 _“I feel like my heart is exploding and healing and exploding again. Over and over.”_  
  
 _“Okay, Drama Wolf.” Jeanie sighed. “It’s going to be okay. 5 more months. No biggie.”_  
  
 _“It’s so much worse than that!” Peter gave a choked-off howl._  
  
 _“What is?”_  
  
 _“You remember Alan Deaton, right?”_  
  
 _“The shaman? From Colorado?”_  
  
 _“Yes. He came here for veterinary school and to join the pack. Last night, I got a call from him wanting to hang out. You were out; I was feeling shitty so I thought, why not? So, we were at this bar and he was getting pretty tipsy and then he kissed me. And before I could think I was kissing back. And then I was pushing him up the stairs and into his apartment and I was thinking ‘this is so wrong, he’s not Jack, and he’s not your mate’ but it had been so long since I had gotten any and he was_ _completely_ _willing and Jack had pretty much told me to do that. To be with other people. And then we were fucking. And I feel guilty, and I’m angry at myself for feeling guilty. It’s pretty pathetic really.”_  
  
 _“It’s okay, Peter.” Jeanie whispered, rubbing circles onto his back. “Jack loves you. He’ll still love you when he comes back. So, put all feelings for Jack aside. How do you feel about Alan? Maybe Jack is your Robert, and Alan is your Jim.”_  
  
 _“What? You’ve only been with Jim for a month.”_

  
 _“Yeah, but when you know, you know. You know? You never answered my question.”_  
  
 _“I like him, I guess. He’s a decent looking guy. The sex was good. But, you know, it’s never been him. From day one, it was always,_ _always_ _, Jack.”_  
  
 _“It’ll be okay. Peter. I love you.”_  
  
 _“Love you, too, Jeanie.”  Peter heard Jim snoring on the couch so he pulled Jeanie closer as they fell asleep together. When he awoke later, Jeanie was gone and he found her on the couch curled into Jim Stilinski’s side._


	5. Chapter 5

_It was Christmas Eve and the whole pack was spending Christmas at the Hale house. Everyone except Jack, that is. Jack had been gone for 4 years; first it was China for 2 years, then Japan, Korea, India, then Japan again. He had popped over to Israel to study Krav Maga for a while, and then back to China again. Peter was standing against the living room wall watching Mark and Luna’s children, 6 year old Robb and 4 year old Laura, wrestling on the floor. Next to him was his constant shadow, Alan._  
  
 _Peter never meant to fall into this pattern of habitual sex or companionship or whatever it was that he had with Alan. In fact, he had actively avoided making it a regular thing for the first year that Jack was gone. But Jeanie moved out to live with Jim and Jack didn’t come home. And Peter missed his pack and Alan was just there. Always there. And it was convenient and a little pathetic how easy it was for Peter to just take whatever affection he could get, even if it wasn’t the real love he wanted. At first, he felt guilty about the fact that when Jack came home, Peter would have another man’s scent all over him. Now he just thinks that when Jack comes back he’s going to have to work extra hard to replace that scent with his own._  
  
 _Jeanie arrived, arms loaded with presents; Peter rushed to help her, giving her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Alan hugged her and helped, too._  
  
 _“So, Peter, have you heard from Jack lately? What’s our world traveler up to now?” Jeanie asked with a smile. Alan visibly cringed at the mention of Jack, but Peter knew she wasn’t mentioning Jack to hurt Alan. In fact, it was exactly the opposite. She was trying to warn him that he shouldn’t get too attached, that Peter’s love for Jack had never waned._  
  
 _“A week ago he was in Brazil. Capoeira.” Peter answered._  
  
 _“That’s good, closer to home.”_  
  
 _“Yeah,” Peter smiled. “He said he misses everyone, and he hasn’t even met the new baby, yet. Or Joshua or Ashley, for that matter.”_  
  
 _Joshua was Robert and Lycana’s toddler.  Ashley was a human member of a pack in Arizona. Her pack was killed by hunters, even the humans, but Ashley’s parents smuggled her out to Cassandra’s pack in Colorado before the fighting began. Cassandra didn’t know what to with her, but immediately started to remedy that by building a group home for orphaned pack members and setting up an adoption agency. Luna and Mark fell in love with the bubbly little girl with a dimpled smile and curly blonde hair at first sight. So, they became the first people to adopt through Cassandra’s agency._  
  
 _Luna rushed into the room, carrying baby Derek. “Jeanie, it’s so great to see you!” She gave Jeanie a hug with her free arm._  
  
 _Jeanie grinned. “Hey, Luna. Let me see that baby!” Luna held Derek close to Jeanie, letting him get used to her smell before handing him over. “Oh, he’s adorable! Aren’t you just the sweetest little thing?” She cooed at Derek. He seemed to take offense, and scrunched up his face, his little lip jutting out. “Oh, I take it back. You’re not sweet! No, you’re a tough little guy, like your uncle Jack.” She tickled his feet and Derek smiled._  
  
 _Luna gasped and grabbed Jeanie’s hand. “What’s that!?”_  
  
 _“I’m getting married!” Jeanie flashed her engagement ring at Luna. Peter already knew, having had Jeanie call him screaming minutes after the proposal. But Jeanie wanted it to be a surprise to the rest of the family._  
  
 _“Oh Wow! Congratulations Jeanie!” Luna gave Jeanie another hug, and took her baby back. “When’s the wedding going to be?” She cocked her head for a second, “By the way, Mark says ‘Congratulations,’ too.” Mark was upstairs reading to Ashley and Joshua in the playroom._  
  
 _“Well, I want it to be a pack wedding, so it needs to be on the new moon. I want us to get time to get settled, Jim has an interview with the Beacon Hills sheriff’s department next month, and I can write my advice column from anywhere.”_  
  
 _“So you might be moving back home?” Luna asked hopefully._  
  
 _“Yes, I am going to move back home as soon as I can. You guys need me!” Wolf ran into the room, and tackled Jeanie, pushing her and Peter to the ground._  
  
 _“I’m so glad you are coming home, Jean!” Wolf nuzzled Jeanie’s neck with her nose. “Oh, and congrats about the whole wedding thing. You know if you get cold feet and need one last fling, I’m always available.” Wolf joked. Jeanie laughed. Robb and Laura noticed the pile of wolves on the floor and jumped on top, Wolf started tickling Robb, and Laura tried to tickle Peter, but he got Jeanie to tickle Laura and soon everyone was ticking everybody until they were all breathless._  
  
 _They were all so busy laughing and playing with each other, that none of them noticed the car coming up the drive, until the front door opened. They all stopped laughing and looked at the door in stunned silence. Except for Robb who jumped up and ran at the man who just walked in. “UNCLE JACK!!”_  
  
 _“Surprise?” Jack smiled awkwardly at his family on the floor. And then everybody was rushing to hug him, welcome him home, and lay their scents on top of all the foreign scents that hung around Jack. Peter stood back a little, watching. Still not able to believe that Jack was actually here, that he had come home. His heart beat so loudly it was drowning out the conversations surrounding Jack. Mark came downstairs with Ashley and Joshua so they could meet their uncle. And then Jack caught Peter’s eye and smile that special smile that only Peter was given. “Peter.” He whispered almost reverently._  
  
 _“Jack.” Peter replied and then a nanosecond later he was pulled into a crushing hug. Jack was back where he belonged and everything was right with the world. Peter was crying happy tears and just breathing Jack in, all of the foreign scents not masking the scent deep down which was completely and undeniably Jack. His hearing picked up the familiar sound of Jack’s heartbeat and reveled in the sound. Peter pressed a bruising kiss into Jack’s lips, no longer completely aware of their surroundings. Jack kissed back deepening the kiss with his hands caressing Peter’s face._  
  
 _Then Jack pulled away suddenly, the kiss ending too quickly and smiled shyly at the family. He looked at Peter seriously. “We’ll talk later,” He promised. And then he was walking away to go take little Derek away from Luna for a minute._  
  
 _Robert and Lycana had gone into town to get last minute groceries for Christmas dinner. When they returned, they welcomed Jack home. Lycana realized that Alan had disappeared, and went to go find him._  
  
 _After a few hours, things settled back down. Jack was regaling the family with stories of his trips overseas. Showing them moves he had learned. Robb was completely impressed, trying to mimic his uncle. Jack promised to show him more later. He was planning on opening up a dojo here in Beacon Hills and teaching martial arts full time. Jack stood and looked at Peter. He sighed, “I suppose it’s time that we had that talk. Would you come for a walk with me?” He smiled a small smile._  
  
 _They went outside, and shifted, running toward the clearing in the woods beside a creek that they had claimed as their place as teenagers. Everything had been so much simpler then. When they got to the spot Peter collapsed on the ground talking about how much he missed Jack, and thoughts on their future, now that Jack was back._  
  
 _“Peter,” Jack started but Peter talked over him. “Peter, listen.” Peter stopped talking and looked at Jack curiously. Jack sighed, a serious look on his face again. “Peter, I can’t be your mate. I’ve taken a vow of celibacy.”_  
  
 _Peter looked betrayed, worried and angry all at the same time. “Why?”_  
  
 _“I cannot reach enlightenment with distraction. My feelings for you were a distraction. I had to clear my mind, purify it. I went to China to understand my own nature and to understand the nature of all things. It was only in the second time I went to China that I began to see my path and I wanted to come home and share my knowledge with others.”_  
  
 _Peter was outright crying now. “But I love you! It’s always been you!” Peter sobbed._  
  
 _“I know, Peter.” Tears were streaming down Jack’s face as well. “I know. I love you, too. I just... I can’t....” Jack looked like he was debating reaching out to comfort Peter. But there was no comfort, not for this. “I’m so sorry, Peter.” He backed away. “Stay here, I’ll send Jeanie out to talk to you.” Jack turned and walked away._  
  
 _Peter’s world fell apart. He crumpled to the ground sobbing violently._  
  
 _When Jeanie found him, he was dirty, sobbing into the ground, clawing at the earth. She knelt down beside him and put her arms around him holding him tightly. “It’s fucking freezing out here!” Peter growled. “No, seriously! I think I risked hypothermia to come find you.” Peter didn’t laugh and Jeanie sighed. “I’m so sorry, Peter. I wish there was something I could do to fix this for you. I’d threaten to beat him up, but you and I both know he could totally kick my ass.”_  
  
 _“I could make him, you know.” Peter asserted. “I am second in command of the whole pack. I outrank him. I could demand that he be my mate.”_  
  
 _“Don’t even go there, Peter. You could never do that to him.” Jeanie chastised. “He may not be your mate right now, but he still loves you. If you did that, he would hate you. Forever.”_  
  
 _“I know. I didn’t mean it. I just want this aching in my chest to go away. I don’t want to feel this way anymore.”_  
  
*****  
“I’m sorry, Stiles. I just can’t do this anymore right now.”  
  
Stiles was surprised to find himself abruptly pulled from the memory. Peter looked like he was dying inside, like reliving a memory over 20 years old had destroyed him. It only took a split second for Stiles to do what his mother would have done. He pushed forward, moving Peter’s arms out of the way.  He nuzzled into Peter’s chest and wrapped his arms around the older man, hugging him as tight as he could. Stiles was shocked at himself, but then decided to let himself just appreciate the comfort of pack. Maybe Derek didn’t consider him pack yet, but Peter did. And Stiles was damn sure he would fight for his rightful place in Derek’s pack. “It’s okay, Peter. All this memory stuff is making me hungry anyway. How about I make spaghetti and you can fill me in on what you know about the alpha pack?”  
  
Peter grinned. “Sounds like a plan.” They went downstairs and Stiles got to work chopping vegetables.   
  
“So, this pack is run by a megalomaniac named Zane. He is a sadistic bastard who likes to torture his victims, psychologically and physically. He likes to play games. His pack was killed by hunters- only he and his sister survived- when he was only 12. They lived on their own for a while, in the forest. But eventually he got smart, started trying to turn little old ladies that he could use his alpha power on to make them obey. They all died, either too old or too sick for the bite to take. The hunter’s were on his trail, but he turned a 40 year old man with severe autism. The man was cured and he started posing as their dad. Eventually, he met and turned the twins, Caleb and Seth. They were already scary psychotic, having set their house on fire with their parents in it. Then, he started going after alphas, no one is completely sure why. They go after new, weak packs, packs that are struggling. They start attacking the people close to the pack, friends and family. When they are all gone, they attack the betas, by the time they get to the alpha she’s weak and insane. He lets a beta take them out. They are all loyal to him, for various reasons, and he maintains control of the alphas. He sees Derek as weak, but still good enough to be a challenge. He likes a challenge. He sees the entire thing as some kind of game.”  
  
“Oh, so how are we going to win this?” Stiles lamented. “It seems impossible.”  
  
“Well, Derek’s pack is new. That’s true. But it’s also old. We have connections. Alan Deaton, for one. Laura broke a lot of the connections after the fire. But they can be mended.”   
  
“Well, why doesn’t Derek talk to the connections and fix it?”   
  
“Derek feels guilty. He was a 14 year old boy that fell in love with the wrong girl, and his family got killed in the process. I think he feels like he doesn’t deserve help from the people who were friends with his parents.”   
  
“No! Your family didn’t get killed because Derek was with Kate. Kate was a fanatical crazy bitch who thought that your family was monsters who needed to be killed. She would have killed your family anyway, ruining Derek was just a bonus to her.”   
  
“That might be true, but try telling that to Derek.” Peter shrugged.  
  
“I will.” Stiles finished the spaghetti, and started throwing together a salad while he was cooking a few pieces of garlic bread. Stiles looked nervous avoiding looking at Peter. “So, Boyd and Erica...the last time I saw them, they were tied up in the Argent’s basement.”   
  
“What?” Peter grabbed Stiles shoulders and turned him to face him. His fingers touched the fading bruise on Stiles face. “Is that what happened?”  
  
“Yeah. After the game.” Stiles exhaled. “Gerard took me after the game, he said that Boyd and Erica wouldn’t give away Derek, and he started beating me. I gave in, after a while. I told him that Derek was in the train station.”  
  
“It’s okay, it’s better that you told him where Derek was rather than letting him hurt you.” Peter told him. “Someday soon we need to go over what to do if you are in a hostage situation without getting yourself hurt. Now, Boyd and Erica were going omega. I have some hope that they got away safely, but we are going to have to assume that the alpha pack has them.”  
  
“Will they kill them?” Stiles asked. “If they got them they are probably dead by now, right?” Stiles looked distraught.   
“Maybe, but Zane likes to play games. There is a possibility that he’ll return them as a message to Derek.”   
  
Stiles exhaled deeply. “We have to try to find them.”  
  
Peter nodded, “We will.” He cocked his head. “Your dad’s home.” Stiles looked panicked, but Peter just shrugged. “It’s about time I got my welcome home party.”  
  
Sheriff Stilinski walked in the door. “What’s that smell, Stiles? It smells delicious!” Then he got into the kitchen. “Peter?”   
  
“Hi, Jim. I just came by to catch up with my godson here. He offered to cook me dinner.”  
  
Jim looked confused. “Ok...? Last I heard you had gone missing from the hospital.”  
  
“Well, that’s a long story, I’ll explain while we eat.”  
  
They sat down to dinner and Peter started weaving a lie about Kate kidnapping him from the hospital, which brought him out of his catatonic state. Then using the Hale family money to have plastic surgery. The sheriff looked skeptical, but seemed to accept the story which was a relief to Stiles.   
  
After dinner, Peter said he needed to leave but promised to be back soon to catch up with Stiles. They hugged goodbye and Peter left.   
  
As soon as Peter disappeared down the street, Jim turned on Stiles. “Now, this is the part where you are going to tell me how Peter and his nephew Derek are werewolves. And no, before you ask, your mother didn't tell me either.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, cliffhanger. Sorry about that. Also, I don't mean to disparage Buddhism in any way. I'm not familiar with the religion, any and all references to Zen Buddhism now or in the future are based on information I found on the internet.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Couldn't sleep, so I wrote another chapter. I totally realize that Stiles would never have been able to stay silent during that whole monologue toward the beginning, but I didn't want to break it up, so suspend your disbelief, please.

Stiles stared at his dad, completely speechless. “Uhhhh...”  
  
“Yeah, imagine how I felt when I first found out.”  
  
Stiles shook his head and blinked. “When did you find out?”  
  
“A couple of months after Jeanie was gone.”  
  
“How did you find out?” Stiles started as soon as Jim stopped talking.  
  
“I should be the one asking questions. You should be telling me how you got tangled up in all of this mess.”  
  
“I honestly can’t even figure out where to start.”  
  
“Okay, how about this? I’m gonna answer your question, and then you’ll answer some of mine. Then, we are going to figure out how to proceed with all of this.”  
  
Stiles sank heavily in one of the kitchen table chairs. He was relieved and nervous all at the same time. On one hand, he didn’t have to lie to his dad anymore, but on the other hand this conversation was going to suck. A lot. He sighed. “Okay, that sounds fair.”  
  
“So, how I found out. Well, Jeanie’s attachment to Peter’s family and their attachment to her was...odd. From day one, I didn’t understand it. But on our first date she said ‘Peter’s family and friends are my family and friends. They may be clingy, possessive and overprotective of me sometimes. And they might do things that you think are bizarre. But I love them and they love me so if you can’t handle them, we shouldn’t drag this out any further.’ But the thing was, I was pretty much in love with her before our first date. So, even if I wanted to I couldn’t run. You see, Son, we had an Ethics in Philosophy class together, it was a discussion class. And every time she opened her mouth she basically took everything that I was thinking and feeling and worded it so beautifully. I was in awe of her. I saw her around campus and I tried to get my nerve up to just ask her out. I can stare down hardened criminals until they break and give me a confession, but I couldn’t ask your mother out. She intimidated me. Finally, on the last day of classes, I was afraid that I’d miss my chance and asked her out. I didn’t know what she had meant exactly on that first date until the first time I woke up around 3 A.M. to find that Peter had climbed into bed with us at some point in the night. She explained it off as ‘He just needed some comfort, he’s having a bad couple of months and he’s just a really tactile person. His sister in law is from a commune, the whole family is a little touchy-feely.’  
  
Anyway, things just got weirder when we moved to Beacon Hills. Peter’s sister, Calliope stayed over so often that I thought she had moved in without my knowledge. When I cooked dinner, I always set an extra plate for Wolf and Peter, because they were always there. I’d go by her home office in the middle of the night and she would be in there with several people whispering about fairies and looking through some weird looking old books. And she would always tell me she was working on her book and that was that. After the fire, she spent every day at the hospital, sure that just by being there, she could make Peter heal, even though the doctors said there was no way he was even going to come back from that. They didn’t think he would even last the first day. When Laura came here from New York for the funeral and to take Derek back with her, Jeanie begged Laura to let the boy stay with us. But Laura said that he needed to be with family. And Jeanie said that she and Stiles were Derek’s family, and what about Peter. Laura said that Peter wasn’t Peter anymore, that he was just a shell that looked like him. She thought it would be harder on Derek to see him broken and in the hospital, after everything that had happened. And Laura signed over all of Peter’s assets, all the Hale family holdings, and Peter’s medical Power of Attorney over to Jeanie, and left with Derek.  
  
Jeanie got sick. Even when I had to carry her, she made me take her to see Peter. It always made her feel better so I was glad to do it At one point, she started working on this laptop constantly. About a month before she passed, she put the laptop, charger, some flash drives and external hard drives in this old leather briefcase,  and wrote a ten page letter. She put it all in a box and told me to mail it to Laura in New York. She also wrote three more ten page letters, put a flash drive and a key in each of them and had me send one to a Cassandra in Colorado, and one to a Wendy in Montreal, and one to Alan Deaton, who was living in Florida at the time. I started to wonder if she had joined the C.I.A. at some point when I wasn’t looking.  
  
After she had been gone for 2 months or so, I decided to try to clean out her old home office. I came across this key to a storage unit downtown. So, I went to the storage unit, the thing was filled with old heavy books in different languages. There were stacks and stacks of notebooks filled with Jeanie’s handwriting. Notes. Letters. Pictures. There were photographs of the Hale family in various stages of shifting. Everything pointed to them being werewolves. I had hard evidence. I was shocked, at first. But then I started putting everything I knew about them in context. And it all started to make sense. I thought maybe you knew about all of it, so I asked you and you didn’t remember anything. It was like you completely forgot spending every single day until you were 8 years old with some member of the Hale family or another. I can tell by the look on your face that you still don’t remember. I had noticed a lot of the stuff in the storage unit was about magic, spells she had tried, things that she wanted to try. The most recent one had a lot of stuff about memory.”  
  
Jim stopped talking. Stiles hadn’t said a word, not the entire time Jim had talked. He’d paced, found a notebook and a pen and started writing, fidgeted and squirmed, but he didn’t say a word. Finally, Stiles talked. “Do you think she erased my memories of them?”  
  
“I don’t know, Son, evidence suggests that she did.” Jim sighed. “Well, now it’s time for you to talk. How did you find out?”  
  
Stiles started from the beginning, telling his dad about Scott getting bitten. When he got to the part about how they killed Peter, Jim cringed. Stiles skipped to Peter coming back from the dead and mentioned that Peter was better now. He wasn’t crazy.  
  
“I don’t know how to feel about that, to be honest.” The sheriff sighed. “As sheriff, I should arrest him and make him pay for his crimes. I became a sheriff because I valued justice and I wanted to protect people. But as his friend, I feel like most of his actions were justifiable and the others, well, he lost his wife and 3 children, he lost his brothers, their wives, his sister, and his brother and sister in law, and all of their children. Not to mention all of the other people in his ‘pack’.” Jim made air quotes around the word pack. “I feel like he’s entitled to go a little crazy. Are you sure he’s okay now? That he’s not a danger to anyone?”  
  
“Well, I wouldn’t say anyone. There is apparently a pack of alpha werewolves here to torture and kill every single werewolf and all of their family and friends. Oh, and they might already have Erica and Boyd.”  
  
Jim let out a low whistle and shook his head. “That um, thing with Jackson and the restraining order. Did that have anything to do with this?”  
  
“Yeah, Jackson was bitten but instead of turning into a werewolf he turned into this creepy scaly lizard thing called a Kanima, which had paralyzing venom. He was being controlled by Matt, and Matt made him kill a bunch of people, but then he died twice and came back as just a regular old werewolf. So, I guess that’s good.”  
  
“I have a feeling that there are pieces of this story missing.”  
  
“Well, you get the gist.”  
  
“Why didn’t you tell me when you first found out, Stiles? Why did you lie?” Jim questioned.  
  
“Well, I honestly didn’t think you would believe me. And your job is dangerous enough I didn’t want to add life threatening werewolf stuff on top of that.”  
  
“Stiles, I’m your father, it’s not your job to protect me. No more secrets.” Jim rubbed his hands over his eyes. “Now, about this alpha pack is that the only current threat?”  
  
“No, the Argent family are werewolf hunters. Gerard made Derek bite him and disappeared. The bite wasn’t taking so he might be dead, but if he’s still alive, he’s going to be really mad. Oh, and he did this to my face.” He pointed at the fading bruise.  
  
Jim got a hard angry look on his face. Stiles recognized that face from his hallucination at Lydia’s party and flinched. He started to apologize but Jim spoke first. “IF Gerard Argent is alive, he’s going to have me to answer to first. I will launch a full investigation, he’s probably killed a lot of people, and he won’t get out of jail if he lives to be 100.”  
  
“So...you’re not mad at me for saying it was the other team that did it?” Stiles looked at his father, trying to read his expression.  
  
“I don’t like that you felt you had to lie to me. But we aren’t going to lie to each other. Not anymore.” Stiles eyes were starting to tear up and he launched himself across the kitchen table to give his dad a hug.  
  
When they finally broke apart, Stiles looked at his dad. “I don’t know what we are going to do about this alpha pack. Peter seems to think that the old pack had connections that we could use to get things done. Lydia is a Martin and therefore should have witch powers. I might be able to do some magic, if mom could. Alan Deaton will probably help, and he’s a shaman. But the pack is fractured and Derek’s leadership skills are infinitesimal.”  
  
“Well, we are going to get some sleep. Tomorrow, I’m going to start using my Sheriff’s Department resources to figure out if there’s any new or suspicious people in town, and try to find out where this alpha pack is staying. And you’re going to go to school.”  
  
“Okay. Hey, Dad. I don’t know if it matters, but Scott’s mom knows about werewolves, and when she found out she was freaking out a bit. Maybe you could talk to her.”  
  
“I can do that.” Jim nodded. “We need all the help we can get and she needs to know what’s going on.”  
  
“Dad, can I get the key to that storage unit. I think I need to see what’s in it.” Jim walked over to one of the junk drawers in the kitchen and rummaged around in it, he pulled out an envelope with the key inside. “Thanks, Dad. Goodnight.”  
  
“Goodnight, Son.” Stiles trudged up the stairs, brushed his teeth and went to his room. He was exhausted, and was ready to fall in bed. But Peter was sitting at his desk when he got there.  
  
“Peter? What’s up?” Stiles just saw him leave a couple of hours ago.  
  
“Well, I wanted to finish our conversation from earlier, but then I overheard you talking to your dad. By the way I’m glad you told your dad and it’s all out in the open now. I think you should talk to Lydia tomorrow, maybe show her that storage building that your dad was talking about. If you don’t mind, I wanted to show you another memory and not leave you with that last one.  
  
“Okay.”  
  
*****  
  
 _Peter found Jeanie sitting on a park bench in the town square. “What are you doing? You should be at home resting, putting your feet up.”_  
  
 _Jeanie rubbed her large, swollen belly. “I’m pregnant, not an invalid. I was tired of sitting at home.”_  
  
 _Peter knelt in front of her and put his ear to her belly. “He sounds good. Have you decided what you are going to name him?” He put his hands on her belly and pushed in slightly to feel the baby squirm._  
  
 _“I think we are going to go with Ephraim, after my dad.” Peter made a face and Jeanie laughed._  
  
 _Peter put his face to her belly and stage whispered. “You hear that Ephraim, your mom has given you the worst name ever. We need to come up with a good nickname stat!” Then he fell to cooing baby noises, because come on, Jeanie was having a baby! A couple of ladies saw him and started ‘awwwing’ and Peter laughed. “Not the dad, just the best friend and godfather. “_  
  


_“Uncle Peter!” Derek ran across the grassy park and came up beside Peter. Peter stood and sat beside Jeanie on the bench. “Jeanie, you have a big belly like my mom did before she had Pete and Cora.”_

_“I know Derek, I’m going to have a baby, too. How is your new little sister?” Cora was three months old, Jeanie and Luna were excited that their children would get to grow up together._

_Derek wrinkled his nose. “Corazon smells.”_

_Jeanie laughed. “She’s a baby. She’ll smell better when she doesn’t wear diapers anymore.”_

_Derek put his ear to her belly and smiled. “It’s a boy. What’s his name?” He looked up at Jeanie expectantly._

_“I’m naming him Ephraim.”_

  
_Derek shrugged. “Hi, Ephraim.” He whispered into her belly. “You aren’t going to be a werewolf like me, so I’m going to have to protect you, okay?” Derek had gotten in a lot of trouble for rough housing with his human siblings. He was told he had to protect Ashley and Stephen because they weren’t werewolves. Peter was glad to see that Derek had taken that lesson to heart. Derek kissed Jeanie’s round belly._

_“Derek, how do you like first grade?” Jeanie asked._

_“It’s okay.”_

_“Do you learn a lot?” Jeanie smiled._

_“Yeah. But I’m gonna quit when I turn 7.”_

_Jeanie looked puzzled. “Why is that?”_

_“I’m going to focus on my kung-fu.” Derek said seriously. Jeanie put her hand over her mouth to stifle her giggles._

_“Oh, really? Is Jack teaching you kung-fu?”_  
 __  
“Yeah, but I’m gonna be better than him when I get big.”

_Robb came over and collected his little brother. Jeanie looked at Peter, “So, speaking of Jack...How is all of that going?”_

_“You mean does it still hurt to be in the same room with him? Yes. We are trying. We are Pack and family first. And I just have to remind myself that even though Jack can’t be there for me physically, that he’s still there emotionally. And we talk, and it’s better. So maybe I will get to the point that I can move on.” Peter smiled. “Oh, speaking of that...I was recently propositioned. One of the alpha’s sisters from a pack in Vancouver is looking for a mate. She wants someone that is high-ranking, intelligent, and who would be a good father. For some reason, she has decided on me. If I accept, it would mean a huge alliance with her brother’s pack.”_

_“So, are you really thinking about doing it? Pretty much marrying a stranger?”_

_“Yes, she’s smart, educated, and strong. She would be an asset to the pack. Plus, she’s beautiful, so our children would be exquisite.”_

_“Have you told her about your feelings for Jack?”_

_“Yes, she doesn’t care. Her reasons for doing this are strictly unemotional.”_

_“Well, what about Alan?” Jeanie sighed. “Have you talked to him about this.”_  
  
 _“No, not yet. I should never have let this go on as long as it has. I care about him. But I got with him out of heartbreak, and I stayed with him because of heartbreak. And all of the good feelings I have for him are tied to the sad feelings I have from losing Jack. If we had gotten together in better circumstances, then maybe....” Peter trailed off._

_Jeanie held Peter’s hand entwining her fingers with his and laid her head on his shoulder. “Whatever you decide to do, I just want you to be happy.”_

*****  
“So, Derek was actually that cute?” Stiles smiled.

“Yeah, pretty much.” Peter laughed. “Well, I’ll let you get some sleep. I’ll come by tomorrow.”

“Hey, do you know why my mom didn’t tell my dad about you guys?”

“Well, she tried to, at first. She would leave hints and clues everywhere. She would make jokes about the full moon. She even outright said that our family was a pack of wolves. She would get close, but she couldn’t get the nerve up to actually say ‘Hey, Peter is an actual bona fide werewolf.’ So she tried hints and jokes. But your dad just didn’t believe it. He saw her magic books and things and came to the conclusion that she was writing a book. After a while I offered to show him but she didn’t want anyone to shift in front of him because he carried a gun. Later, she got scared that he would hate her for lying all that time. Or that he would want to keep her or you from seeing or being a part of the pack. I think it was all irrational fears, at some point they just turned into excuses. Your mom was amazing, Stiles, but she was still human. Sometimes she made mistakes.”

Stiles nodded and sighed. “Well, Goodnight, Peter.” He hugged the man and Peter left. As soon as Peter was gone, Stiles turned out the light took off his clothes and crawled into bed. He was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know about this chapter. It just doesn't feel right to me, but I can't figure out what's wrong with it. I'm also not completely sure the legal stuff toward the middle is true at all.

Stiles wanted to go by his mom’s storage building before school, but he would have gotten distracted and failed to even go to school at all. And he needed to talk to Lydia as soon as possible. And try to figure out how to get Scott and Jackson to actually join the Hale pack.   
  
He thought maybe Lydia would be the easiest to start with. After all, she had come to him of her own volition on the night of the championship game. She must feel that he is at least somewhat trustworthy. And hopefully, if she got involved, she would drag Jackson along.   
  
Now Scott, on the other hand...  
  
He pulled into the parking lot at the school and looked around for Lydia. She wasn’t around, but he did see Scott and waved. Scott walked over to the Jeep as Stiles was getting out, “Hey, I tried to invite you to my game last night, but you weren’t on the X-box.” Scott stopped and frowned. “Why do you smell like that?”  
  
“Smell like what?” Stiles lifted an arm and took a sniff. Deodorant, as usual.   
  
Scott stepped closer and sniffed the air. “Like Peter. Why do you smell like Peter?”  
  
“Oh! That! He was at my house last night.” Scott looked alarmed. “We were just...talking. He was friends with my mom. Actually, he’s my godfather.”  
  
Scott frowned. “That psycho is your godfather?! Are you sure? Maybe he was lying to you!”   
  
“Well, actually my dad sort of confirmed it. By the way, my dad knows you’re a werewolf and he’s probably going to call your mom about it.”  
  
“What? You told him!”   
  
“No. Not about werewolves, anyway. He figured that out a long time ago. I only told him that you were a werewolf because he wanted to know how I knew about werewolves. He’s okay with it, really.”  
  
"You need to stay away from Peter.” Scott warned.  
  
“He’s not going to hurt me, Scott.”  
  
“He’s killed people, Stiles! And he made me into a werewolf!”   
  
Stiles wanted to say, ‘yeah he turned you into a werewolf, but he shouldn’t have because you are clearly terrible at it.’ instead he said, “He might have killed people, but he’s not the last person in this town to go on a murderous rampage, and we forgave her.” He hadn’t actually forgiven her, but Scott had, and if Scott had then it was only a matter of time before he did, too.  
  
“Allison didn’t actually kill anyone.”  
  
“Well, that’s not for lack of trying if the arrow holes in Boyd’s chest are any indication.”  
  
Confusion flashed across Scott’s face. “When did you see Boyd?”  
  
Stiles sighed, he’d accidentally said more than he wanted to reveal.  “After the game, Gerard got me, not the other team. Boyd and Erica were tied up in his basement with some electric wires, I tried to help them, but the wires shocked me. And Gerard beat me for a while.Then had one of his goons kick me around for awhile, until I told him that Derek was using the old train station as a base.” Scott looked betrayed and Stiles restrained himself from rolling his eyes. “But I think Boyd and Erica got away from the Argents just to be caught by a pack of alpha werewolves that have come to town to kill us all.”  
  
“I know I heard about it from Isaac,” Scott replied. Then he looked frustrated. “But I just can’t deal with any of that right now, I have to pass my classes, and I’d like to get at least some good grades.”  
  
“Scott, we’ll figure this out. We just need to work together. And I can totally help you on your homework...Hey, I’ve got to go try to find Lydia before school starts.”   
  
“Okay, I’ll talk to you at lunch, okay?” Scott turned away smiling, “Hey, Isaac! Wait up!” And he jogged across the parking lot to where Isaac had just arrived.  
  
Stiles was walking into the building when he found himself in the middle of one of Peter’s residual memories.  
  
 _****_  
  
 _It was the day of Ephraim’s christening. Peter was named godfather, and Luna was godmother. Everyone was happy to add a new member to the pack. They baby had been fussy throughout the ceremony, and he wouldn’t stop crying after. Jeanie juggled him on her hip while trying to hold a conversation with the adult pack members. The children had all gone outside right after the ceremony holding their ears._  
  
 _The adults were passing Ephraim around, they all wanted to give him their scents and they all thought they could calm him down. Derek tugged on Jeanie’s hand, “Jeanie, can I hold him?” The adults looked down at Derek in surprise. Everyone was shocked he hadn’t exited stage left with the rest of the kids when Ephraim had started screaming. And Derek had never shown any interest in the other pack babies. But Jeanie nodded and told him to go sit down._  
  
 _When Derek was sitting Jeanie carefully lowered the baby into Derek’s arms. “Now you have to be careful not to let his head fall back. Okay?” And Derek nodded._  
  
 _Ephraim was still crying and Derek started humming, and making little murmuring noises. The baby settled down and quit crying. Derek smiled down at him and let him grip his fingers._  
  
 _Despite Jeanie’s protests that Ephraim was a perfectly fine name, they decided to give the baby a nickname. They suggested Bug, and Ducky (because Callie said that Ephraim had imprinted on Derek, like a baby duck.) There was talk of Booger and Stinker, but they were vetoed. Luna liked Cookie, but everyone else was ambivalent. And finally, Jack looked down and said, “Well we can’t shorten Ephraim, what if we shortened Stilinski.”  And then they all tried to come up with something that incorporated Stil or Ski in it._  
  
 _After a few minutes, Derek spoke from the couch where he was holding the baby. “What about Stiles? I think he could be a Stiles.” And there was a half-hearted protest from Wolf, who felt like a kid named Ephraim needed a badass nickname. But everyone agreed that Stiles was cute, so that was that._  
  
****  
  
Stiles tripped as he returned to reality, almost taking out Lydia as he fell to the ground. “Oh, hey, Lydia, I was just looking for you.” Lydia pursed her lips and managed to look pissed off and slightly bored at the same time.   
  
“Why were you looking for me, Stiles?” She answered in a haughty tone.   
  
“I need to talk to you about something.” Stiles answered.   
  
“Well...?” She held up her hands in gesture that said ‘spit it out, you’re wasting my time.’  
  
Stiles looked around them, a few people were watching them, expectantly. Probably expecting to see Lydia give a tongue lashing to the peon who dared invade her space. ‘Seriously, guys? I won the championship game, I should be your king,’ Stiles thought. He looked at Lydia, “I can’t tell you here. It’s about that thing you wanted to know more about before.”  
  
“Oh.” Lydia sighed and flipped her hair. “So when do you want to talk.”  
  
“I actually have something to show you. We can go there after school. You can drive.”  
  
Lydia looked contemplative for a moment, then nodded. “Fine. After school, then.” She heel turned and walked off down the hall.   
  
The rest of school went by uneventfully. Allison still wasn’t back in school. Stiles sat with Scott and Isaac and they only talked about the alpha pack briefly, Isaac not wanting to give away too much pack information without Derek’s permission and Scott not wanting to hear about it at all.   
  
After classes, Stiles met Lydia at her car and she nodded for him to get in. He told her the address to the storage unit and they took off. “Okay, so werewolves are real.” She glared at him. Right, get to the point. Okay. “Anyway, Derek and Peter were born werewolves of the Hale pack that lived here in Beacon Hills. Then, Allison’s aunt set the house on fire and killed almost all of them. Derek and his sister, Laura, moved to New York and Peter was in the hospital here in a catatonic state. Then, Laura came back because of werewolf signs for a vendetta. She got killed, Peter took her alpha power and bit Scott. Derek came back to find out what happened to Laura, tried to help Scott, and Peter started killing people that had anything to do with the house fire. Peter bit you, but you are immune to, like, everything and then we helped Derek kill him. Derek became the alpha and bit Jackson, Isaac, Erica, and Boyd. Jackson turned into the Kanima, who was controlled, first by Matt and then by Allison’s grandfather.  Peter got you to bring him back to life, because from what I can tell, you have innate witchy powers. Congratulations. Yer a Wizard! Anyway, the original Hale pack had some human members, your aunt Wendy was one. She is also a witch. My mom was Peter’s best friend, and Peter is my godfather. She did magic as well. And the vet, Dr. Deaton is some kind of shaman.” Stiles finally stopped to take a breath. Somehow he had yet to come across the point, which was the alpha pack.  
  
Lydia looked at him skeptically, “You mean to say that my aunt is a witch and no one thought to mention this relevant information to me.”  
  
“Well, your aunt pretty much went into hiding after the fire, and your dad apparently wanted nothing to do with werewolf business. Your mom didn’t know. But yeah, your family has a very long line of female witches, apparently. Do you know how to get in touch with your aunt?”  
  
Lydia nodded. “I have her cell phone number.”  
“Good, we should call her today.” Stiles was relieved, he was worried he wouldn’t be able to find Wendy again. “So, I’m taking you to a storage unit that my mom put all of her information on the supernatural and all of her Hale family stuff in. I just found out about all of this yesterday, so I’ve never been here. But, the most important thing I need to tell you, is that there is a pack of alpha werewolves that is here in Beacon Hills. They want to torture and kill everyone associated with the Hale pack, which includes you, Jackson, and probably Danny. And there’s a possibility that they already have Erica and Boyd. I’m hoping that if we can pool our resources and work together, we can all come out of this alive.”  
  
Lydia parked outside the storage building, but she didn’t move. She stared straight ahead, processing everything that Stiles had just told her. It was a lot to take in. Stiles didn’t say anything, just waited. He knew that once she understood the situation, she would take to all of this like she did everything, perfectly and without hesitation. She was a Martin witch, she was literally born for this. Finally, Lydia looked to Stiles, “Well, let’s get in there and see what we can find.”  
  
Stiles’ dad was right, this building was packed. Floor to ceiling boxes toward the back, the left side was mostly smoke damaged items. Things Jeanie had rescued after the fire. The right side was boxes and boxes of books. There was a very small space down the middle which you could walk between to get to the stuff in the back. Lydia and Stiles started opening boxes. Stiles found a stack of notebooks and flipped through them, his mom’s flowing script was on every page front and back, but sometimes there were notes in the margins, or in between lines in someone else’s hand. These notes may have been mostly his mom’s but they were collaborative. A few people in the pack helped write them. Some pages were doodles and squiggles. Written conversations. They weren’t organized in any special way and most of the notes weren’t relevant. Stiles noticed that several of the pages had personal notes, ‘Wendy said...’ or ‘Ask Wendy about...’ “Your aunt is mentioned a lot in this notebook.”  
  
Lydia was on the other side of the room. “Her name is on or in most of these books, too.” She lifted a heavy tome and started flipping through pages. “It’s a good thing that my aunt instilled a love for dead languages in me before she abandoned me to my fate, because none of these books are in English.”  
  
“I think we need to call your aunt, now. She might be able to help us make sense of this stuff. And she might know if anything is relevant.” Lydia pulled out her cell, found Wendy’s number and called her. She turned the speakerphone on and set the phone in front of Stiles.   
  
After two rings, Wendy answered. “Lydia?”  
  
Stiles looked to Lydia but she said nothing and shrugged. “Actually, Wendy, it’s Stiles Stilinski. I’m assuming that you knew me when I was younger.”   
  
“Stiles! Wow, I can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve talked to you! You sound so grown up, Hun. Oh, if you are calling then something must be wrong. And you probably still don’t remember me.”   
  
“So, what did my mom do to me, why don’t I remember anything about you guys?”  
  
“It was a basic memory charm. She cut off the remaining pack bonds and removed your memories of them. She set it to wear off on your 18th birthday. But I’m pretty sure I can lift it early if there is a need for it to be gone.”  
  
“Why would she do that? I don’t understand And yes, there is a need for the stupid charm to be gone.”  
  
“Since you were born into the pack, you were really closely bonded to them, closer than even Jeanie and I were. After the fire, you began to have severe panic attacks, anxiety, had this nervous energy. You cried for Derek and Laura every night. Your mom got sick and she didn’t want to add to your losses. So, she erased your memories. She wrote me a letter, explaining what she did and why, and asked me to see how Derek was doing in New York. The separation from the remaining pack members was tearing him apart. So I cut his memories and ties to us; you, your mother, Alan and I. That way he could be okay with just Laura.”   
  
“When does his wear off?”  
  
“His is different than yours. I wanted it to be able to be removed quickly if any pack members needed him, or vice versa. His is set to trust.”  
  
“What do you mean? How do you set something to a feeling?”  
  
“I made it so that if an old pack member earned Derek’s trust, completely, the charm would be lifted.”  
  
“Well, that sucks.”  
  
“Why is that?” She asked.  
  
“Derek is not a very trusting person.” Stiles sighed. “I guess we are stuck with these curses for now.”  
  
“It’s not a curse, it’s a charm. And Derek was trusting once, he can be again. Persistence is the key here, Stiles. At first, he will be suspicious. Maybe even a little agitated or hostile. Once the pack bonds are severed it makes werewolves act  almost in direct opposition to how the bond would make them feel. It’s like, Derek would see me, and he would know that there is something important missing, that there is something instinctive that he should pick up on. Since he wouldn’t be able to put his finger on it, he would assume that it is some kind of threat. But he can be convinced. I’m sure of it. I guess since you know who Derek is, then he’s back in Beacon Hills. I’m sure you didn’t call to talk about the charms. I don’t know what’s going on with anyone in the pack for the last couple of years, so I need you to catch me up.”  
  
Stiles gave her the cliffsnotes version, ending with, “And now an alpha pack is in town, trying to kill us and we need you to come home.”  
  
“Wow!” She breathed. “I can’t believe you said all of that on only one breath.” She shuffled around. “I can be there on Friday.”   
  
Lydia finally spoke, “You can’t have your old room back. I’ve made it into my closet!”  
  
Stiles rolled his eyes. “You can stay with me. Dad and I have plenty of room. And he knows about werewolves now, so you can help fill him in on everything I don’t know.”  
  
Lydia walked over to where the phone was sitting. “Well, you are running my battery down, and we have work to do. So, goodbye Wendy. See you on Friday.” She pushed the end call button. Stiles started to protest, but Lydia set a box in front of him. “You have got to see this.”  
  
It was one of those fireproof, waterproof boxes for storing important documents. Stiles opened it up and looked inside. It was full of papers. Deeds and Titles for land, bank statements, and important looking documents that Stiles didn’t understand were all in the box. They were all in Ephraim Stilinski’s name.  
  
“STILES! You own my house! Why do _you_ own _my_ house?” Realization dawned on Stiles. When the Martin’s moved to Beacon Hills, Peter found them a house. He must have purchased it with pack money.  But Stiles had no idea why it was all in his name.  
  
“I have no idea.” He scrambled through the box and found a business card for Brian Webber who seemed to be a financial advisor and accountant. He sincerely hoped this guy knew why this was all in his name. He called the number and put it on speaker so Lydia could hear.  
  
“Webber Financial. How may I help you?” A nasally woman answered.   
  
“This is Ephraim Stilinski calling for Mr. Webber.” The woman on the other end muffled her voice but Stiles could still hear her. ‘He says his name is Ephraim Stilinski calling for Brian.’ Another voice answered, ‘Well? Patch him through.’ ‘But we are supposed to be closed.’ The other voice hissed back. ‘This is THE Ephraim Stilinski. I’m sure Mr. Webber has time for his biggest client.’  
  
The nasally voice returned. “Right away, Sir. Please hold.”   
  
Seconds later, a man’s booming voice was on the other end of the line. “Mr. Stilinski! To what do I owe the pleasure?”   
  
“Well, Mr. Webber, funny you should ask. You see, I am cleaning out a storage unit of my mom’s and I came across a box full of stuff that says I own a lot of stuff.”  
  
“Well, Mr. Stilinski-”  
  
“Stiles. Call me Stiles.”  
  
“Okay, and you call me Brian. Stiles, you certainly do own a lot of stuff. Your mother signed it all over to you seven years ago.”  
  
“What exactly do I own?”  
  
“Let me get your file.” Brian left for a minute and Stiles exchanged shocked faces with Lydia. “Okay. First off, since you are a minor you own the property, but you can’t manage or sell it yourself. Your mother appointed me guardian, which means that if you need money or want to do anything with any of the properties, you have to do it through me. The only person other than me that can directly access anything is Peter Hale. But, he’s in a long term care facility and you have a stipend going to pay his bills.”  
  
“Actually, he’s no longer in there. He recovered.”  
  
“Well...You can actually come in and have him named guardian of the assets, if you want, or I can continue to manage it. But Peter has full access, so if you want me to continue managing your finances, he can make changes at any time.” He paused. “So, originally there was the Hale Group llc, which owned several residential and commercial properties around Beacon Hills, as well as several unzoned tracts of land. Most of the businesses and houses are rented through a property manager, except for two.” He named off the addresses for Lydia’s house, as well as the Hale house. “You’ve also inherited the personal accounts and life insurance policies for several people; Robert and Lycana Hale, Peter and Emily Hale, Wolf Stone, Jack Stone, and Calliope Hale and all of their children. The actual Hale property and fire insurance is split between you and the heirs of Mark and Luna Hale. I’ve put most of the money into stocks and investments. Your property totals more than 8 million dollars. And your investments and other money come to around to somewhere around 14 million.”  
  
“Whoa! You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!”   
  
Brian laughed, “It’s no joke.”  
  
Stiles was pretty sure he was losing his mind.“Brian, I can’t even fathom how this is happening, I’m going to have to call you back, after I’ve figured this all out.”   
  
“I look forward to your call, Stiles.” Brian replied and they hung up.  
  
Stiles sat staring at his phone. Of course, it was all Hale pack money and he would probably end up giving it all  back to the pack, but right now, at this very moment he was a millionaire. He was pretty sure he was going into shock because he started giggling. Just crazy, maniacal giggling. Then he remembered that Derek through a fit that first day because Stiles was trespassing on private property, but Stiles owned half of that property! Stiles laughed louder.   
  
“Okay, Stiles, enough with the mental breakdown. Remember, alpha pack coming to kill us.” Stiles sobered. “I think we’ve done enough here for today. I’m going to take those boxes home with me to look through. You can take those. Help me get them in my car.” Stiles carried the boxes to the car. “I am going to talk to Jackson and if Danny’s in danger like you think he is, we are going to go tell Danny what’s going on.”   
  
“Okay, that makes sense. Wendy will be here on Friday. If I can get Derek to trust me somehow in the next two days, we should pull everyone together and go through what we know.” Lydia nodded.   
  
“Just tell him the truth.” She pursed her lips, “Werewolves can do that lie detector thing, right? Jackson does it all the time now, it’s really annoying. Anyway, if you tell him truthfully that he can trust you, then he’ll know he can trust you, right?”  
  
“That might work.” They got to the jeep at the school and Stiles got out, carrying his boxes. “Well, see you later, Lydia.” Lydia drove off and Stiles got in the Jeep and drove home.  
  
When he got home, Stiles started boiling water for rice, he had some cooked chicken and he could throw something together for dinner quickly. He bolted up the stairs to change clothes because his were dusty and smelled a little like smoke. As soon as he got in his room he was pushed against the wall by a Sourwolf. “Hey, Derek.” Stiles knew from watching Peter’s memories, that Derek was actually, perhaps subconsciously, trying to rub his own scent off on Stiles. Even though Derek didn’t believe they were actually pack, Derek was marking him as one of his own. Stiles’ heart felt a little lighter when he realized it meant that even though Derek didn’t consider him pack, he wanted him to be. Stiles let his head fall to the side and looked up at Derek. “Hey, do you remember me, from before you came back?”  
  
Derek looked at Stiles in confusion, whatever he expected, it wasn’t that. “Not really, why?” Derek glanced at Stiles exposed neck and licked his lips, Stiles wanted to say ‘my, what big teeth you have.’ But he did still have some sense of self-preservation.   
  
Instead, Stiles said, “I have to tell you something, Derek. And you need to listen. And I mean really listen. Use all of your senses.” He searched Derek’s eyes looking for understanding. He grabbed Derek’s hand and held it over his heart. “All of your senses.” Stiles took a deep breath. “Here goes. Derek. I want to be in your pack. I want to help you. If you need anything, anything at all, from me, all you have to do is ask. I am your pack. You are my alpha.” Stiles’ eyes started to well up with unshed tears. “I care about you. I want to be there when your pack is as beautiful and as happy as your parents’ was when you were a child. I do trust you. And you can trust me too.” Stiles pushed himself forward, closing the gap between himself and Derek and wrapped his arms around Derek’s chest.   
  
Derek was stunned for a second and he didn’t move at all. Then, he slowly wrapped his arms around Stiles, like if he moved to fast Stiles would disappear. “Stiles. I do remember you.” Stiles felt a giddy happiness in his chest, like he could float away.  
  
Stiles looked up at Derek’s face grinning. Derek was staring down at him with such awe and wonder that Stiles couldn’t help but reach up to touch the side of Derek’s face, amazed that Derek was looking at _him_ like that. “Good. Do you remember Wendy, too?”  
  
“That witch did this! Why did she do this?”   
  
“I’ll let her explain that when she gets here on Friday.” Stiles said with a smile.  
  
“She’s coming here? Why?” Derek face was a thousand different emotions all at the same time and Stiles wished he would just settle on one way to feel.   
  
“Because she’s pack. We are your pack and we want to help.” And then Derek hugged Stiles tighter and put his face on Stiles’ shoulder. And if there were tears, on both sides, Stiles would never tell.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is from Derek's point of view. I hope you like it.

Derek was pretty sure that his life was some fucked up version of the Final Destination movies, like maybe he should have died in the fire with the rest of his family, so death just kept following him around trying to finish him off. He’d survived Kate and the fire, crazy alpha Uncle Peter, Jackson turning into a kanima, and the Argents declaring war on him. Now, there was an alpha pack poised to take him out. His life had just been a series of mistakes that he’d made which had gotten people killed.   
  
He hadn’t known that Kate set the fire, not at first. It wasn’t until days later, after the funeral that he heard the message Kate had left on his phone, ‘Did you like my parting gift? I wish you would have been there at the start, it was...explosive! Just breathtaking, really. I wish I could have stuck around to see your face, but Daddy needs me elsewhere.’ A sigh. ‘Just think, first time out and I’ve already got more kills under my belt than my brother. It really is amazing.’ She laughed then, ‘I do hope we meet again someday. It’s sure to be the bomb.’ Eight years later and Derek could still hear every breath, every inflection in her voice.  
  
He didn’t have a clue how he was going to fight off a pack of alphas with a handful of werewolves that didn’t even like him. Boyd and Erica had already left, Isaac was pulling away spending more and more time with Scott, and Scott had made it clear that he didn’t want Derek to be his alpha. And Peter...well, Derek had no idea what angle Peter was working. He had been M.I.A. for a couple of days and when he’d showed up smelling like Stiles, Derek was concerned. As soon as Peter was busy, Derek went to Stiles house and waited.  
  
Stiles’ bedroom smelled overwhelmingly of Peter, and Derek felt slighted, he knew Stiles didn’t trust him, or even like him at all, but he never thought he would actively choose to work with Peter over him. Scott, definitely, but Peter?  
  
It was after six when Stiles got home, Derek honed in on the familiar heartbeat as soon as he arrived. He seemed happy, part singing and part humming ‘Hungry Like the Wolf’ to himself while starting dinner and Derek was a little relieved that Peter must not have hurt him in any way. He heard Stiles heading up the stairs, the second Stiles stepped in the room Derek smelled him, he smelled wrong. Dust, books, fire, Lydia, Scott, Isaac, the Sheriff, and too much Peter. Derek pushed Stiles against the wall, ready to get to the bottom of why Stiles had been spending time with Peter.  
  
He expected Stiles heart rate to rise, but he didn’t sense fear or anger like he thought. And then Stiles cocked his head and exposed his neck. And Derek wanted to run, to put the entire room between him and Stiles. The whole fucking town. Because what Stiles was saying with that one move was ‘I respect you as alpha. I recognize your leadership. And I honor your title.’ and Derek wanted it. His chest ached from the want. He longed to put his teeth on Stiles’ neck. To claim him as pack. To let him know ‘You have nothing to fear from me. You belong to my pack. I will keep you safe.’ But he knew Stiles probably didn’t know what his body language was saying and Derek needed to get away before he did something regrettable.  
  
Before he could back away, Stiles was asking him about knowing him before the fire, and it confused him. And then, Stiles was searching deep into his eyes, like he could see all the way to Derek’s very core. Derek wanted to look away, to blink. He felt exposed under that much attention. But to look away was to show weakness, so he kept his eyes on Stiles. Then Stiles put Derek’s hand over his heart and begged him to listen. And Derek did. As Stiles spoke, Derek felt something stirring inside him, foreign and confusing. For the first time since the fire that stole his family from him, Derek felt hope. And as Stiles leaned forward to pull Derek into a hug, Derek remembered.  
  
He remembered sitting on the floor, Stiles standing between him and Jeanie, where Stiles took his first shaky steps and flung himself into Derek’s arms and Jeanie pretended to pout because Stiles liked Derek more. And he remembered running through the woods, Stiles clinging to his back and taking Stiles to a clearing in the woods by a creek where they caught tadpoles and crayfish and Derek taught Stiles how to climb a tree. And he remembered Stiles sitting on the kitchen counter at the Stilinski house and they made sugar cookies, decorating them with candy, and how, after putting every cookie on the sheet Stiles stopped and licked his hands.  
  
Stiles was pack. Wendy was coming home. Alan Deaton was already here. Derek felt hopefully optimistic. But then Stiles was saying, “Oh, Shit” and pushing Derek away.  
  
“What?”  
  
“I forgot! I was working on dinner. I just came up to get a clean shirt.” He walked to his dresser, taking his dirty t-shirt off as he walked. “I’ve got so much to talk to you about, if you want, you can stay for dinner and I’ll fill you in, and my dad knows about a lot of this stuff, but I have some other things I need to fill you both in on.” He pulled a plain white T over his head and walked up to Derek. And this time, when Stiles exposed his neck, Derek nipped lightly at the skin once, his movement awkward and a little bit clumsy, because this was the first pack member to acknowledge him in that way.  
  
They went downstairs and Derek listened to Stiles tell him about Peter’s memory sharing, and how his dad found out about werewolves, and how his dad offered to help. Derek was disappointed that Stiles still didn’t have his memories. Stiles told Derek about his mom’s storage building and how he brought Lydia with him to check it out. The sheriff came home. He wasn’t surprised to see Derek there, making a joke about ‘two Hale’s in two days, it feels like old times.’ Then they all sat down to eat.  
  
Stiles was a good cook and the chicken and rice was one of the best meals Derek had eaten in a long time. Derek told Stiles that, and Stiles blushed and smiled.  
  
Stiles asked the sheriff if he’d found out anything about the alpha pack and the sheriff said that nothing had turned up, yet. Then Stiles looked at both of them seriously and said, “I have to tell you guys what happened today.” Stiles’ heart rate picked up and Derek became concerned.  
  
“Okay, so I wanted to get some help and I asked Lydia to come with me to mom’s storage unit so that I could tell her what is actually going on.” Stiles looked at Derek. “She is a Martin witch and she deserved to know.” Derek nodded for Stiles to go on.  
  
“Anyway, we were in the building and kept finding stuff about Wendy, so we called her and she told me about the memory charms, and how to fix the one on you, Derek. By the way, Dad, I’ve invited Wendy to come and stay with us until she finds a place of her own, or decides what she’s going to do.” Jim said okay, and Stiles continued. “Hold on, I’ve got something in my jeep to show you guys. He ran outside and brought in a box and set it in front of Derek. “Then Lydia found this box full of like, legal documents and paperwork and stuff and I found a business card in it and called the number. Apparently, everything the pack owned, which is a lot, apparently, was set up in a trust kind of situation. Where this accountant guy Brian manages everything for me until I’m 18, then I’m supposed to get full control of it all.” Stiles looked a bit panicked and Jim looked shocked. “Like a lot. Like, millions of dollars, a lot.”  
  
Derek thought back to right after the fire. Laura had been in New York during the fire. Everyone always got together on the full moon. The entire pack. It was the only night that they all spent together. Well, everyone except Alan, he had moved to Florida shortly after Peter married Aunt Emily, and kept in touch with the pack through phone calls and letters. Laura wasn’t coming because she had a summer internship and she was going to NYU in the fall. Wolf and Wendy were both photographers, they had an on again, off again relationship and they were off again when Wolf got the call for a photoshoot in Maui, she declined because of the full moon and Wendy accepted, just to piss Wolf off. She said she wasn’t going to be there for the full moon, but she had wrapped up early and was taking a late flight to get there. She arrived after the fire had been put out and the Hale house was just a bunch of smoldering ash. Derek had been at baseball camp, his Uncle Peter picking him up early for a ‘family reunion.’ And Jeanie and Stiles had just been running late, Jeanie had a deadline for an article that she had to meet.  
  
If the fire had been set just an hour later, everyone but Alan and Laura would be dead.  
  
After the fire, Laura was in denial. She wanted absolutely nothing to do with being alpha. She said the pack was gone. There wasn’t a pack anymore. Just two kids that lost their entire family. She wanted to get far away from Beacon Hills and the memories that were there. She wanted to give herself a new identity in the anonymity of New York City, to not be a werewolf or an alpha, to just be Laura. Her family was killed because of what they were, Laura’s answer was to not be what she was anymore. Derek was pulled out of memories of the past by Stiles saying “Derek?” and looking at him expectantly.  
  
“What?” It must have come off as more of a growl than he liked because Stiles blinked and leaned away from him.  
  
“I just asked if you knew why the inheritance went to me instead of Laura or you?”  
  
“Oh. It makes sense.” Derek vaguely remembered Laura and Jeanie talking about it after the fire. Peter had been in charge of all the finances and he had contingency plans for almost everything. Peter had set it up so that if the pack was under attack and needed to go into hiding, the money trail wouldn’t give them away. Every family member’s inheritance was set to go to spouses and living descendants first, if no one survived the attack, or was missing or medically incapacitated,  it went to Stiles in care of Jeanie. All of the pack’s collective assets that weren’t individually owned went to Stiles automatically. And Jeanie knew how to get funds to any of the pack, should they have gone to any of their bug out locations. But Laura didn’t follow pack protocol, and continued with her plans to go to NYU instead. And even though she was the only living relative of legal age, she signed over medical power of attorney of Peter to Jeanie. Derek thought she was probably relieved to not have to be responsible for all of Peter’s medical care. “Peter set it up that way in case the pack needed to go into hiding.”  
  
“Oh. Well, if you want me to give it back or anything, I can totally do that.”  
  
“We’ll figure it all out when we get the rest of the pack together.” Derek was surprised that he felt like he actually had a pack. A few hours ago, he wouldn’t have been so sure.  
  
Jim Stilinski spoke up, “Derek, I’ve talked to Melissa McCall and we think that you should get everyone together that is involved with this at all and try to get them all on the same page.”  
  
“I agree,” Stiles spoke up. “Wendy will be here Friday, so Saturday would be the best time to get everybody together. Is that okay with you, Derek?”  
  
Derek nodded. He was impressed with how much Stiles had done in such a short time. Derek considered briefly if he should have a real ceremony and name Stiles as his second. He wondered if Stiles would even accept. Not very many werewolf packs had human members, and it was exceedingly rare for a pack to have a human as a second. Derek decided it would be best to table that line of thought until he even knew if he had a pack, so he pushed it out of his mind.  
  
“I think we need to go and talk to Alan Deaton.” Stiles said, quite suddenly. And Jim nodded.  
  
“You still have school tomorrow, so you boys better not stay out too late.” He stood. “I’ve got work to do, you let me know when you get home safe.” And the sheriff headed up to his office.  
  
“So vet’s office?” Stiles said, smiling at Derek.  
  
Deaton was still there when they got there, which was good because as far as Derek knew, no one knew where the guy lived. They walked in and Alan looked up at them, surprised. Then, Derek crossed the space between them and hugged the man that he thought of as another uncle for most of his childhood.  
  
Alan smiled, pleased. “Well, Derek, it looks like you finally figured out who to trust.”  
  
“You knew about the spell?” Stiles asked, confused.  
  
“It wasn’t a spell, it was a charm.” Deaton corrected. “Wendy filled me in, yes. I was starting to worry that it wouldn’t be lifted. So, Derek, what did you need from me?”  
  
But Stiles started talking first, launching into the whole story starting from Peter and the memory sharing. Derek was pretty sure Stiles had told versions of this story multiple times before because he sped through it in less than 10 minutes.  
  
Deaton just stared for a second. “My, it looks like you’ve been busy.”  
  
Stiles nodded. “We are going to have a pack meeting at my house  on Saturday. We’d like for you to be there.”  
  
“Alright, I’ll be there. Now those books from your mother’s storage unit, do you have them here with you?” Stiles nodded. “Mind if I take a look.”  
  
“No, Lydia gave me homework. I could use some help going through them.” And then they brought the boxes of books inside and they all stood around an exam table, books laid out around them and started reading. Every once and awhile they pointed out something to the others. Derek finally felt like he was a legitimate alpha. That he had a pack that wanted to help him.  
  
It was about 10 minutes in that Derek noticed the tapping. Stiles had a pencil and was absentmindedly tapping it against the book he was reading. Derek wanted to reach out and still Stiles hand with his own. But it had been a really long time since he’d been able to just casually touch anyone. Then he remembered that he and Stiles were very close when they were young, and just stopping the tapping would be fine. But Stiles didn’t remember when they were kids, so he might think it was strange or it might make it awkward. So he did nothing.  
  
But the tapping didn’t stop. “Stiles!” It came out as a growl of frustration and Stiles looked up in shock. “Stop it with the tapping.” Stiles looked a little betrayed, and Derek softened his voice, “...please?”  
  
Stiles looked down and saw the pencil, “Oh.” And he smiled at Derek and laid the pencil down on the table, far enough away that he’d have to reach for it. But then he started fidgeting and biting his nails and Derek wasn’t sure if this was any better.  
  
It was a few minutes later when Stiles got the phone call. It was Lydia, she sounded upset. “There’s blood Stiles!”  
  
“Where are you?” Stiles asked her. She was at her house. “We are on our way.”  
  
Alan decided to follow them and when they got to Lydia’s house Derek saw what she meant. The alpha pack’s symbol was drawn on Lydia’s front door in blood. Lydia, Jackson, and Danny came out onto the porch. Jackson was shifting, having trouble with control. “It’s on Jackson and Danny’s houses, too.”  
  
“Is this from the alpha pack?” Stiles asked. Derek nodded. He got closer and smelled the blood.  
  
“The blood. It’s Boyd and Erica’s.”  Lydia covered her mouth with her hands. Stiles looked angry.  
  
Deaton held up a canister. “This is mountain ash. Werewolves can’t cross it. Stiles and I will make a circle around this property. You three need to stay here tonight. Don’t cross the line. In the morning, Lydia can break the line and Jackson can cross to go to school.”  Derek nodded, it was a good plan. They just finished circling the property when Stiles got another call. Scott and Isaac had been out running and when they got to Scott’s house there was an alpha pack symbol on the door. Isaac confirmed it was Boyd and Erica’s blood.  
  
Derek told Stiles to tell Isaac to stay with Scott and Mrs. McCall tonight. And then Stiles froze, all the color draining from his face. “Derek, my dad is at home alone.”  
  
Stiles burst through the front door, ignoring the symbol in blood. He ran up the stairs two at a time and burst into his dad’s office. “DAD!” His dad looked up, confused at Stiles panicked state.  
  
“What’s wrong, Stiles?” He hadn’t even known that the alpha pack had been here. Stiles led him downstairs and showed him the door. They told him it was on everyone else’s doors as well, and that it was Boyd and Erica’s blood.  
  
The sheriff sighed, “It looks like I’m going back to work tonight. Derek?”  
  
“I’ll stay with Stiles tonight, I’ll protect him.”  
  
Deaton spoke up, “And Stiles and I can make it so that the alpha pack can’t come in, as well.”  
  
Jim nodded, relieved. He left and Derek called Peter. When he got to the house, Derek filled him in on what was going on, and told him which werewolves were with whom. “I’m staying here tonight, with Stiles. And they are going to put mountain ash around the outside, just in case.”  
  
Then Deaton looked at Peter. “It looks like we are going to be stuck together, by default.” And he sounded bitter, but Derek was just glad his pack would be safe. “I’ll put the mountain ash around Scott’s house tonight, Stiles. You can go by in the morning to break it.”  
  
And they circled the Stilinski house with mountain ash and Alan and Peter left. Stiles was obviously worried about his dad, so Derek pulled him in for a hug, earlier awkwardness forgotten.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is going to be a little upsetting. Possible trigger warning.

After everyone left the house, Stiles felt like he was on the verge of a complete breakdown. They had instituted a lockdown for everyone even vaguely associated with the pack. Everyone should be safe, except that Stiles’ dad had to go off and try to solve crime. This meant that there was a possibility that he could be hurt. And that was unacceptable. Stiles pulled out of Derek’s embrace and went to get the police scanner, turning it on and putting it on the dining room table. He might not be able to do anything to help right now, but he needed to know that his father was okay.   
  
“Why do you think that they used Boyd and Erica’s blood? They didn’t use blood on your door, did they?” Stiles sat heavily in the dining room chair. They had brought some of the books from his mother’s storage unit inside and Stiles guessed that with his father in danger he wouldn’t be able to sleep much anyway.   
  
“No. They didn’t. I don’t know why they used their blood this time.” Stiles was hoping for a bit more information. “Peter thinks the sign on my door is meant as a challenge. I’m supposed to be his opponent in his little game. The good news is that the blood is fresh and from living bodies. So, the alpha pack has kept Erica and Boyd alive until now. Maybe there’s a chance we’ll get them back.”  
  
“I don’t know what to do.” Stiles lifted up one of the books from his mom’s storage unit. “I can read these books, but what can I do to get Erica and Boyd back?” He sighed. “We have to get them back Derek. We just have to.” He buried his face in his hands. He was getting a little light headed and it was harder to breathe.  
  
“Stiles! Calm down.” Derek knelt down in front of Stiles. He moved Stiles hands so that he could look him in the eye. “Just breathe, Stiles.” When Stiles heartbeat calmed down and he started breathing normally, Derek sighed. “Look. You’ve done more for this pack in 2 days than I could have done in months. This pack needs you. I- WE need you. Whether you are human or a werewolf or decide to learn magic, you belong to this pack. Okay?” Stiles could tell that Derek was having trouble saying the thing he was feeling, and he was gripping Stiles’ shoulder in a way that was almost painful. But Stiles was moved by it nonetheless. He nodded.  
  
“Wait, did you say I could be a werewolf, like that is a real possibility?” Stiles had never been offered the bite from Derek and he was pretty sure that Derek hadn’t thought of him as a good candidate for lycanthropy.   
  
“It’s dangerous. You don’t have to be a werewolf to ensure a place in this pack. Jeanie was human and she was unofficially my mom’s second in command.”  
  
“Why unofficially? Was it because she wasn’t a werewolf?”   
“No, Lycana was second. Jeanie didn’t want to take her place.” Derek growled and looked uncomfortable. “I’ll do it, if you want me too. Talk to Alan and Wendy first. You can’t use magic if you choose lycanthropy.”  
  
Stiles nodded. Derek was still so close that Stiles was having difficulty resisting the urge to touch him. Having a crush on grumpy, angry, Sourwolf Derek, was different than the feelings he had right now. This was stronger, but it was more hopeless. Because this Derek cared for him like pack. This Derek held him as a baby, kissed him on the forehead, and nicknamed him Stiles. This Derek didn’t want Stiles in all of the filthy, carnal ways that Stiles had imagined while jerking off in the shower. Of course, the other Derek didn’t either. So moot point is moot.   
  
As if to prove Stiles point, Derek backed away quickly, “You need to take a shower, you smell like dusty old books and fire. I’ll listen to the scanner for anything about your dad.”  
  
Stiles nodded and headed upstairs. In the shower, another vision of Peter’s decided to show up.

*****  
  
 _If Peter was being honest, the problems with Laura started soon after Mark and Luna adopted Ashley. Where Laura was serious, Ashley was bubbly. Where Laura was tough, Ashley was fragile. Ashley was girly, she was boy crazy, she was human. Laura was tomboyish, thought boys and their smells and their hormones were abhorrent, and was a werewolf._  
  
 _Laura wanted so desperately to be like Ashley; popular, happy, and social. She could never be content with her life and was constantly trying to find a place, outside of the family, where she could belong. When she was ten, Laura got upset that Ashley didn’t have to train all of the time, and she got to take dance after school. So, Luna signed her up for dance classes. And she was good, great really. Perfect balance, graceful, and able to perform complicated moves with ease. Then, a month later, Ashley decided she was interested in learning magic, and started coming home after school. When Laura would get home from dance, she would be disappointed and hurt that she had missed out on whatever the family had done that day._  
  
 _Wendy liked to teach Ashley how to do magic by having her experiment on Wolf, because as she said, ‘that’s how I learned.’ There was a day when Wolf had big blue peacock feathers. They made her purple. They gave her a mermaid tail. And Laura missed it all._  
  
 _Laura got in trouble because she would call out Ashley’s friends when she caught them in a lie. When guys would hit on her, Laura would visibly recoil because she couldn’t stand the smell of horny guys. She would overhear conversations across the high school and would confront people for talking about her. She did have a couple of girlfriends in high school. It was her girlfriend, Trish, which got her interested in the idea of moving to New York City._  
  
 _Luna felt Laura pulling away from the pack, wanting space. Everyone did. They tried to give her space, but they wanted her to participate in the pack. When she got accepted to NYU, the family was happy for her, but they all didn’t want her to leave. But Luna said that Laura was a free spirit. And that it didn’t matter how far she went, she would always be pack. And when she left for New York and her summer internship, they all tried not to cry._

*****  
  
Stiles dressed in plaid pajama bottoms and a plain shirt and went back downstairs. Derek was reading through one of the books, and Stiles joined him at the table. There was a knock at the door, and Stiles went to answer it, Derek right behind him.   
  
“Hey, Sheriff sent me over to dust for prints and to take some pictures and a sample from this.” The deputy pointed at the symbol in blood on the door. Stiles turned on the porch light.   
  
“Alright, go ahead. We’re going to be inside, just knock if you need us.” Stiles shut the door and locked it. Even with the deputy out there he couldn’t be too careful. He sat back down and started reading, but soon his eyes were swimming and Derek was shaking him awake.   
  
“Go upstairs, get some sleep.” Stiles tried to stand but he was dead on his feet. So, Derek picked him up and got him upstairs. Stiles looked adorable, half asleep and Derek couldn’t resist the urge to touch his face as his eyes fluttered shut.   
  
“Derek?” Stiles mumbled, just barely a whisper.   
  
“Hm?” Derek answered.  
  
“Love you.” It was muffled and come out as more like ‘lummmph vu.’ But Derek’s heart sputtered all the same. It had been 8 years since anyone but Laura had said that they loved him. Of course, Stiles was sleep talking when he said it, if that was even what he meant.   
  
“Yeah,” Derek said, “Goodnight, Stiles.” Derek could hear the police scanner from Stiles’ room. And he was more comfortable here, with his pack member, than downstairs. So he carefully took off his shoes, and sat on Stiles’ bed. He leaned back against Stiles’ headboard and put his legs up on the bed. Stiles immediately moved turning and putting his arm on Derek’s leg and his leg over Derek’s foot. And Derek froze until Stiles’ breathing settled. Derek fell asleep, waking up only briefly when Jim Stilinski came home, opening the door downstairs.   
  
Jim peeked into Stiles’ room when he got upstairs. Derek was asleep, his back against the headboard, fully clothed. Stiles had his head on Derek’s leg and arms wrapped around it. Derek’s hand was on Stiles’ back, the other hand on his head. Jim wanted to go in there and pull Derek out, but Jeanie would have been happy that they were comfortable with each other. And they were both wearing clothes, he supposed it could be worse. Jim resolved to talk to Stiles about it later, when they were both awake enough to have this conversation.  
  
*****  
Lydia woke up to a new room in her house. Or an old room newly revealed. Whatever. When they walked out the back door and Lydia went to break the line of mountain ash, Jackson looked at the wall beside them and said, “Lydia, has that always been there?”  
  
And there, on the side of her house, where yesterday there were elderberry bushes, were steps leading to the basement. Seriously, Wendy could have warned her. At least now Lydia knows that magic exists and that Wendy had most likely just revealed her secret witch cave.   
  
Lydia expected it to be like Jeanie’s storage unit. A bunch of books and stuff shoved in together. But it wasn’t. It was organized. The books were all shelved around three sides of the room. The sections were marked. Runes, Grimoires, Spells, Charms, and Curses, Herbology, Divination, Talismans, and Lore. The fourth side was what looked to be, at one time, a greenhouse area with heat lamps and soil. The center of the room held shelving units, and trunks and drawers, leaving room to navigate. There were bottles on the shelves, labeled with whatever they contained. There were objects and talismans that Lydia could literally feel their power and she warned Jackson and Danny not to touch anything. Lydia needed to get to school, so she quickly scanned the books in the lore section, taking one. She took two of the Grimoires and a spell book. She would have to bring Stiles by sometime to check this out, if only to show him what a real witches secret lair should look like.   
  
*****  
Stiles woke up in a pile of drool on Derek’s leg and OH HOLY SHIT. He drooled on Derek Hale! And what was Derek doing in his bed and why was Stiles hanging on to him like a spider monkey and oh god, this has to be the most mortifying thing he’d ever done.   
  
“Stiles, shut up!” Derek growled and Stiles jumped back in surprise, pushing himself to the opposite side of the bed.  
  
“I wasn’t saying anything!” Stiles complained.   
  
“Yeah, but your heartbeat is really loud.” Derek examined himself and rubbed at the wet spot on his jeans. “Your dad got home safe, by the way.”   
  
“Oh, good.” Stiles’ throat was dry and he swallowed nervously, “Well, I need to get ready for school, so...” Stiles scooted past Derek who was standing near the foot of his bed to get to his dresser. He was feeling awkward- morning wood and he could feel the indentations on the side of his face where his face was on Derek’s leg. And Derek, for having slept in all of his clothes, still looked amazing.   
  
Stiles grabbed some clothes, a t shirt and jeans and went to the bathroom to change and brush his teeth. He went back to his room, and Derek looked a little more pensive and broody, so Stiles offered him breakfast. Stiles made garbage, a delicious potato, sausage and egg mixture and Derek ate two plates full.   
  
They went outside and Stiles broke the mountain ash line, he said goodbye to Derek and was almost to his jeep when he was turned and pushed up against the side of the jeep. “If you see or hear anything suspicious, do not hesitate to call me. I don’t want you or the pack putting yourselves in danger, alright?”   
  
Stiles nodded and then, as a last minute decision, exposed his neck to his alpha. Derek leaned down and nuzzled Stiles’ neck, mouth open, breath ghosting on his pale skin. When Derek’s teeth landed on Stiles’ flesh, Stiles had to bite his bottom lip to keep from moaning. Then Derek was gone, backing away with a wave and Stiles was in his jeep. When Stiles saw Derek disappear in his rearview, he finally let out the breath he didn’t know he was holding.   
  
“You smell like Derek.” Scott said as soon as Stiles broke the line and Scott and Isaac got in the jeep.  
  
“Yeah, Scott, it’s nice to see you alive, too. What with the pack of psychotic alphas trying to kill us and all.” Stiles rolled his eyes. “And you probably smell like Isaac, but at least I have the decency to not point that out.” Stiles catches Isaac’s eyes in the rearview mirror. And Isaac kind of grins and blushes and then becomes terribly interested in his phone. “By the way, there’s going to be a pack meeting at my house on Saturday.”   
  
“But I’m not-” Scott started to complain, but Stiles cut him off.  
  
“Yeah, you aren’t pack, but it’s not because you aren’t welcome. And if this alpha pack is after all of us, then you need to work with us, or you and your mom are in danger.”  
  
“US!?” Scott flailed. “You’re on Derek’s side now?”   
  
Stiles hadn’t realized that he had said ‘us’ when referring to the pack, but it was true. He considered himself pack. “It’s not really a side, Scott. Derek and I have been pack since before I was born. We just didn’t remember it. Lydia’s aunt is a witch and put a spell on Derek, and my mom put a spell on me to keep us from remembering each other. Derek remembers now, I still don’t.” Stiles shrugged, “Besides, Derek thinks that Erica and Boyd might still be alive and we need to figure out how to save them.”   
  
Scott sighed and shrugged. “Fine!”  
  
“Okay.”   
  
When they got to the school, Lydia walked directly up to Stiles. “You’ll never believe what I found.” She showed him pictures of Wendy’s secret witches’ lair.   
  
“Wow, that’s amazing. I can come over after school and help you look through it all.” Stiles offered.  
  
“Yeah, you will.”  
  
Throughout the day Lydia texted Stiles things that she had found in the books. And Stiles replied with his own thoughts and ideas about protecting the pack.   
  
At lunch, they extended the offer to go through Wendy’s lair to the rest of their group. Scott had to work, Isaac opted out, and Jackson said he had better things to do. Danny just shrugged and said, “I guess I could check it out.”   
  
After school, Stiles explained to Danny that ‘Miguel’ was actually Derek Hale. But Danny shrugged and said, “I already figured that out, Stiles. Do you really think I’m that much of an idiot?”  
  
Stiles headed straight for the lore section and started reading up on werewolves and alphas. And oh, shit! Trained betas can smell basic emotional responses; fear, anger, or arousal. Born werewolves can dig a little deeper, but Alphas...Well. Alphas can pick up individual hormones. They can tell testosterone from dopamine. Serotonin from norepinephrine. Stiles started looking for a way to mask your smell from an alpha, which could come in handy around the alpha pack.   
  
Then they got the call. Isaac had found Erica.  
  
They met most of the pack at the vet’s office. Derek’s eyes were alpha red, his back against the wall, arms crossed across his chest. His face hard and angry. Isaac was crying, hugging his legs in his chair. Scott hovering over Isaac protectively.  Peter had his face set as an emotionless mask, but Stiles could see through it to the pure anguish and fear underneath.  
  
Finally, Peter stood. “She’s alive, but just barely. Alan and Melissa McCall are trying to patch her up.  When Isaac found her, she was tied to a tree on the edge of the Hale property, naked. It looked like she had been dipped in boiling water, repeatedly. Then they shredded the scalded flesh with sharpened claws. Effectively flaying her.” Lydia gasped. And Peter took a deep breath, steeling himself to continue. “Because the claw marks are from an alpha, the scalded skin isn’t healing. They cut off her hair with sharpened claws, digging into her scalp. And on her stomach, with a claw, they wrote ‘Does she think she’s sexy now?’” Peter sighed and sank into the chair behind him.   
  
Stiles frowned. “Why did they write that? What is it supposed to mean?”  
  
It was Lydia that answered. “They figured her out. They know that she wasn’t like that, before. Her sexy persona is a fabrication. They found the thing that gave her the newfound confidence that she has, and they destroyed it.”   
  
Jackson showed up then, and Lydia went to talk to him outside of the office. Scott said, “Well, what are we going to do with her?” Everyone looked at him. “She can’t stay here and we can’t take her home or to the hospital. Too many questions.”  
  
“And she can’t go to the dirty old train station.” Stiles mentioned. Derek was up and across the room in seconds, eyes flashing as he pushed Stiles into the wall. Scott jumped up to interfere, but Isaac stilled him with a hand on his chest.  
  
“She’s my responsibility!” Derek growled menacingly. “She needs pack to heal!”   
  
“Well, she won’t heal in that disgusting place.” Stiles set his jaw definitely. Derek was glaring at him, but Stiles refused to break eye contact.   
  
“What do you think would be better?” Derek narrowed his eyes.   
  
“She will have to stay at my place. You can watch over her there.” Derek started backing away, letting Stiles step away from the wall. “You have to get a better place, Derek. With the Hale family money, you could rebuild your old house, or build a new one, or just buy something. But you need a place that’s safe for your pack.”   
  
“Fine. We will stay with you.” And as an afterthought he added, “And we will discuss the possibility of a pack house on Saturday.”   
  
They sat in the waiting room for hours. Everyone was tense and afraid. Eventually, Alan and Melissa finished trying to reattach Erica’s flesh and came out into the waiting room. “We’ve done the best we can. We need to monitor her for a couple of days. When she starts to heal by herself we will remove the stitches. Until then, her wounds need to be cleaned and wrapped regularly. Where are you going to take her?” He asked Derek.   
  
“I’m taking her home with me.” Stiles answered.   
  
“Good.” Deaton nodded. “Melissa and I will come and check on her as often as we can, but she’s going to need you guys to stay close.” Stiles nods, and so does everyone else in the room. “I have her sedated. She might need to stay that way all night tonight. You can come back and see her now.”   
  
Erica’s injuries are worse that Stiles could have imagined. Her face was unrecognizable, bloated and welted. Bubbled skin over blisters. Her skin was tattered and torn in wide ribbons, carefully sewn together. Stiles wanted to touch her and offer some comfort, but there literally wasn’t one square inch of skin that wasn’t mutilated.”  
  
When they finally got Erica to the Stilinski house everyone was upset and exhausted. The Sheriff took one look at her and helped carry her to Stiles’ room. They got her in the bed and as comfortable as they could make her. Then they all filed downstairs except Melissa who was fixing the bandages.   
  
The Sheriff found 3 air mattresses for Derek, Peter, Isaac, Scott, and Stiles to sleep on. They got them in Stiles bedroom on the floor. Jim asked Melissa to stay and watch out for Erica, and she took the guest bedroom for the night. Lydia, Jackson, and Danny decided to go home for the night.   
  
They ordered pizza because everyone was too tired to cook and then they all settled down upstairs to go to sleep. Scott and Isaac claimed one of the air mattresses. Peter got on one, and Derek took the last one. Stiles wanted to comfort Erica, his packmate that was broken and hurting. Tears were stinging his eyes, as he stood awkwardly by her bedside.  
  
“Stiles, come here.” Derek called from the air mattress. Stiles walked over to the mattress where Derek was laying. Derek’s hand reached up and snagged Stiles’. He pulled him down onto the bed, curling into him and whispering. “It’s okay. She’s here and safe. It’ll all be alright.” And Stiles tears came in earnest now and he cried into Derek’s chest.   
  
Erica was alive. And they were all safe, for now. Boyd was still missing, but there was still hope. The thought occurred to Stiles that this was his family, now. Yeah, he still had his dad, but he had begun to see the pack as family, too. Even though some of them stubbornly refused to call themselves pack. “This is my family. I found it, all on my own. Is little, and broken, but still good. Yeah, still good.” Stiles said.  
  
“Quit quoting Lilo and Stitch and go to sleep, Stiles.” Isaac growled, but he said it playfully. Scott asked Isaac how he knew lines to Lilo and Stitch and they all laughed, breaking the tension. Derek was still holding Stiles, hands rubbing circles into his back when Stiles finally drifted off to sleep.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, a little forewarning. I've never written smut or even attempted it, but some little voice in my head said, 'there should be a masturbation scene in this chapter.' So, I wrote it, but since I am crap at judging my own writing, I can't tell if it is okay or terrible. So, let me know if it sucks so I can refrain from attempting smut in the future. If it's okay, there will be much more of it. My husband refused to read it for me to make sure it didn't suck.

Derek woke up twice during the night. Once, Melissa stepped in to change the bandages on Erica and to use cold compresses to keep the swelling down. Later, when Erica awoke, Derek could hear her crying and he tried to soothe her, when she fell asleep again he went downstairs. Melissa and Jim were sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee, whispering to each other. Derek walked in and Melissa smiled at him and Jim nodded.   
  
“Couldn’t sleep.” Derek murmured.   
  
“Well, have a seat, son.” Jim nodded to an empty chair.  
  
Melissa went to go check on Erica and try to get some sleep and Derek just sat in silence. Finally Jim spoke. “That boy up there, he’s all I got. I love him more than anything.”  
  
Derek nodded. “I know.”  
  
“He’s a good kid. Wants to do the right thing, and I’m seriously proud to be his father,  but I hate that he’s mixed up in all this dangerous shit.” Jim sighed. “Promise me you’ll do your best to keep him safe.”  
  
“I will. I’d do anything to protect him.” Derek said solemnly.  
  
“Good. So long as we’re on the same page.” He took a drink. “You know, when Stiles was a little boy, he followed you around like you hung the moon and stars. Every other sentence started with ‘Derek said...’ or ‘Derek did...’ He’s starting to get that look again, now. And when he gets his memories back...” Jim trailed off contemplatively. “Well, I think his feelings might be overwhelming. Just...I want to tell you that you shouldn’t encourage him, that he’s too young. But when Stiles gets determined, he pretty much latches on and won’t let go. So...I carry a gun okay. And if you hurt my son, it won’t kill you but I’m pretty sure it will hurt like a son of a bitch. So Just, don’t rush into anything you might have to take back later.” Jim stood and put his hand on Derek’s shoulder. “Goodnight, son.”   
  
Derek sat for a while, stunned. He tried to figure out exactly what Jim meant. Then, he started to remember, isolated incidents from his childhood that made no sense back then, but now... Robb teasing him that his mate was there when Jeanie and Stiles pulled into the driveway. Jeanie saying that ‘the boys should wear matching white tuxedos at their ceremony’ and Mom replying with ‘But black is so much more classic.’ And just the protectiveness and possessiveness over Stiles that he felt all those years ago.  
  
Derek thought about Stiles. The way his eyes brightened when he was excited. The way he smelled. He thought about the way his lips parted when he was surprised. And his sarcasm. And how, even without his memories, he chose Derek’s pack. How even before his memories, he held Derek up for hours in the pool. Even when Derek had refused to see it, Stiles had been there, always. Derek realized that somewhere down the line, without even realizing it, he had started to fall for the hyperactive teenager. But he could never be the boyfriend that Stiles deserved. And he definitely didn’t deserve someone like Stiles.   
  
Derek sighed and trudged up the stairs. The could-have-beens weighing heavily in his mind. If only he hadn’t fucked everything up for Kate. He might have had a chance at having real love and not the terrible facsimile that he had gotten with Kate.  
  
Stiles had moved while Derek was gone, and now his back was facing Derek’s spot. He crawled under the covers beside Stiles, holding himself back stiffly and trying not to pull Stiles closer. Stiles instinctively scooted his back closer to Derek and Derek gave in, just this once, and wrapped an arm around Stiles. Eventually, Stiles heartbeat and his smell lulled Derek to sleep.   
  
*****  
  
Stiles felt warmth at his back and strong arms wrapped around him. He pressed back against the sensation of warmth as he slowly began to wake up. He realized it was Derek’s arms around his chest and Derek’s lips against the nape of his neck. Stiles slowly opened his eyes, taking in his surroundings. Isaac and Scott were gone, Erica hadn’t moved last night at all, and Peter was sitting by her bedside, eyeing Stiles and Derek with amusement.   
  
Stiles grimaced and tried to carefully disentangle himself from Derek. But Derek clutched tighter in his sleep and whined. Stiles wanted to laugh at Derek, but then Peter snorted and Stiles chose to glare at him instead. To be honest, this was actually a _Very_ nice way to wake up. And if Stiles didn’t have to pee, and didn’t have a tremendous case of morning wood, he would absolutely just shut his eyes and pretend to be sleeping for a little while longer. But. “Derek.” He pushed at the arm around him. Derek growled. Stiles turned over so that he was facing Derek and pushed on his shoulder. “Hey, Derek.” Derek growled and opened one eye. “Hi. Good morning.” Stiles smiled a little at Derek’s messed up hair and licked his bottom lip. Derek came to his senses then and moved quickly, disentangling their limbs and getting off the air mattress.   
  
Stiles wanted to pout about how quickly Derek tried to get away once he knew that it was Stiles he’d been cuddling. Instead, Stiles sat up and stretched, looking at Peter. “How’s Erica?”   
  
“Better. Swelling’s gone down a lot. The blisters look like they are healing. Can’t tell about the claw marks, they seem the same. She was in pain earlier; Isaac, Scott and I siphoned some of the pain away so she could go back to sleep.”   
  
“Good. Maybe when she wakes up again, she’ll be ready to talk.”  
  
Isaac popped his head in the door to tell them that he and Scott had made breakfast. That didn’t sound appetizing; Stiles had eaten Scott’s breakfasts before. So, he told them to go on down and he got up to change clothes and check on Erica. He knew he probably needed a shower, but he didn’t think he could shower without taking some much needed Stiles-on-Stiles time and he couldn’t do that with all the werewolves in the house. But he had pretty much decided that he wasn’t going to school today, Wendy would arrive by the evening and he wanted to call Brian, his financial guy and see what he could do about getting a comfortable place for the pack to stay.   
  
He sat in his computer chair that was rolled over to Erica’s bedside. “So. You need to get better, Erica.” He looked at her. Her face was slightly less blistered than yesterday. Her forehead wasn’t clawed, so he softly put a hand there, just barely touching her. She opened her eye that wasn’t swollen “Hi. How are you feeling? I mean, I’m pretty sure you feel like shit because... Never mind. Do you want anything.”  
  
“Water.” Erica croaked. Stiles got up and went to his closet; he kept a case of water in there because the Adderall made his mouth dry a lot. He opened it and gave her a sip of it, and poured quite a bit more on her.  
  
“Sorry.” He tried to carefully clean some of the water off with the hem of his shirt but it didn’t help much. He stopped when she hissed in pain. “Sorry! Sorry.”  
  
“Where am I?”   
  
“Welcome to my bedroom. Derek, Peter, Scott and Isaac are downstairs. Do you want them to come up?” Stiles knew that the werewolves downstairs could hear them and he knew Derek wouldn’t let anyone come up if Erica wasn’t ready.  
  
“Not right now. Why? Why is Derek even bothering with me?” Tears began to well up in her eye.  
  
“Erica, I don’t know what happened to make you want to leave. But you left the pack, the pack didn’t leave you. We are going to take care of you. When you’re better, if you still want to leave, well...I’ll help you find a safe pack to go to. But I really hope you give us another chance, give Derek another chance because we are trying to figure this out and work together.”  
  
Erica sighed. “I guess I need to talk to Derek.” Derek came into the room a few seconds later, Peter and Isaac trailing behind him.   
  
“So,” Peter started, “the first question is, do you know if Boyd is still alive?”  
  
“He was, when I was still there. They said they were going to send us both back broken and Derek would probably do their job for them.”  
  
Peter nodded, and then explained. “In a lot of packs, especially new ones like Derek’s, they don’t have extra people to take care of the injured. So the alpha will put them down instead of delegating someone to take care of them, so that the rest of the wolves could focus on the fight.”   
  
“That fucking sucks!” Stiles protested. “There is no way we would ever do that to Erica or Boyd!”  
  
“Of course not,” Peter agreed. “But either way, we are going to be down players for the war.”   
  
“They want the Kanima.” Erica said. “They want Jackson.”  
  
“But Jackson isn’t the Kanima any more.” Isaac pointed out.   
  
“He can revert,” Peter looked worried. “If they killed Lydia or maybe Danny, he wouldn’t have anything to anchor him and he could revert back to the Kanima.”  
  
Stiles cursed and called Lydia. “Pick up... Come on Lydia, pick up the phone!.... OH Thank God! Lydia, please tell me Danny and Jackson are with you. Good. You need to come here as soon as you can before school. And all of that stuff we talked about keep it on you. The alpha pack wants the Kanima and they are willing to kill you and Danny so that Jackson will revert... Okay? Just get here as soon as you can.” Stiles hung up and rejoined the conversation.  
  
Peter had asked how many werewolves the alphas had in their pack. “It’s hard to say but the most heartbeats I ever counted were around fifteen. The main alpha was Zane; he’s probably in his early 20’s. His sister, Melanie, is too. David is around his mid-forties. The twins Caleb and Seth are around 17. And there’s another Alpha named Sebastian who’s probably 15. I think that’s all the alphas. One of the betas mentioned another named Travis. He had turned a few of them, but Zane got mad at him and killed him. I think the next in line to turn alpha is named Ethan.”  
  
“Were there any humans or people that used magic of any kind there?” Derek asked.  
  
“No. I don’t think so. It was all werewolves.” Erica answered.  
“Good.” Stiles nodded. If the alphas didn’t have magic, then it gave Derek’s pack somewhat of an advantage. Erica started looking tired. “You should get some sleep. I’ll make you some soup later and bring it up.” They filed out the door to let her sleep. Stiles looked nervously at Derek. “SO. 15 werewolves. No big deal. Right?”  
  
Peter snorted, and no one else said anything because what exactly are you supposed to say to that.  
  
Lydia showed up, walked into the front door and announced, “I’ve brought you a prisoner. And Stiles, if you were wondering, that thing worked.”  
  
“It did! Awesome!” Stiles fist pumped the air. He looked to Derek and explained. “Lydia and I wanted to protect the people who aren’t werewolves so we were looking into ways to incapacitate them. We repurposed a couple of paintball guns to shoot that powdered knock-out wolfsbane that Lydia used on you to get you to the house to revive Peter. We weren’t sure if it would work, we were going to test it on Peter later. But apparently it did.”  
  
Jackson and Danny came in the house carrying a sleeping werewolf. He was shirtless and he was hot. Stiles thought he had a Tom Daley thing going on with the body and the face. And Tom Daley was totally Stiles’ Olympics crush. “Nice! What happened to his shirt?” Stiles asked.  
  
“Wolfsbane, I had to take it off of him or I would have had to carry two sleeping werewolves.” Danny answered. They maneuvered the sleeping man onto the couch.   
  
“Good idea, you should have taken the pants, too. You can never be too careful.” Stiles quipped. “High Five!” He held up his hand to Danny who just rolled his eyes. “Okay. No high five then.”   
  
“What are we supposed to do with him?” Scott asked. He had entered the room with his mother and the sheriff when they heard all of the commotion. “We can’t kill him and we can’t just keep him forever.”  
  
“I could take him down to the station. Put him in lockup.” The sheriff suggested.  
  
“NO!” Stiles answered. “He’s a werewolf in a pack full of even more dangerous werewolves. If he howled for his pack they would probably try to kill a bunch of people just to get him back.”   
  
Lydia spoke up. “I have mountain ash in the car and...” She pulled out a book and opened it to a page and held it out for Stiles to see. “This has runes that we can draw on walls to soundproof any place. If we put him in a room and drew these on the walls, his pack wouldn’t be able to hear him, and he couldn’t hear us if we were outside of the room.”  
  
“We need to get information out of him; he might be able to give us something that will help us fight the Alpha pack.” Stiles sighed. “What about the basement?” He asked, looking at his dad. The basement was huge. It had a full bathroom. They had always meant to make it into something, like a den. But with just the two of them, it seemed pointless. The only thing they actually used the room for was laundry. But they could block off half the room with mountain ash and leave the washer and dryer still accessible.   
  
The sheriff nodded. “I will probably come to regret this. The town sheriff should not be keeping hostages in his basement.”   
  
“Dad, he was probably there to kill Lydia this morning. And the jail isn’t equipped to deal with this kind of thing.” Stiles looked at Lydia. “Let’s go put the runes in the basement, and have the werewolves test them, before this guy wakes up.  
  
Everyone had left Isaac and Scott upstairs watching the werewolf. The sheriff was up there too, with the paintball gun, just in case the guy woke up. When they got downstairs Lydia and Stiles got to work on the runes, while Danny walked up to Derek. “I want you to make me a werewolf.”  
  
“Why?” Derek asked.  
  
“I want to help in the fight.”   
  
“There are a lot of ways you can help without being a werewolf. I won’t say no, right now, but I am going to make you think about it. If you take the bite, you will be my pack. You will have to take orders from anyone higher ranking than you, which would include Stiles.” Stiles stopped painting to look over at Derek in surprise, grinning. “Talk to the rest of the werewolves and the pack. Wendy is going to be here later today, she and Alan should be able to tell you if you have any magical abilities, and give you the pros and cons of being a werewolf. If you do all that and still want to become one, then I’ll give you the bite.”  
  
Danny nodded. Lydia and Stiles finished the painting and the werewolves tested it, standing inside and outside of the basement and howling. The runes worked, so they transferred the werewolf and a cot to the basement. And Stiles used the mountain ash to block the werewolf from leaving that side of the basement.   
  
Lydia complained that she was missing first period. “I’m not going to school today. I have to get things ready for Wendy and I want to take care of Erica.”   
The sheriff didn’t argue too much, he knew that Stiles would be okay if he missed school today and he decided to pick his battles, and this one wasn’t that important in the grand scheme of things.  
  
Lydia, Jackson and Danny said they needed to go to school. And Melissa ordered Scott to go because he needed to bring up his G.P.A. Derek told Isaac to go and watch out for everyone and to call him if there was any reason to believe that the Alpha pack was lurking. The teens left for school and Mrs. McCall headed to the hospital after changing the dressings on Erica’s wounds. The sheriff had to go to work as well. This left Stiles with Peter and Derek, a werewolf in his bed, and a werewolf in his basement.   
  
Stiles started heating up soup for Erica, and Derek started to get antsy, he said he was going for a run. Stiles assumed that if he were to follow him, Derek would be lurking outside of the high school, making sure the Alpha pack wasn’t anywhere near the rest of the pack. Even though most of them stubbornly refused to call them themselves packmates.  
  
When the soup was done, Peter offered to take it to Erica. So, Stiles made a sandwich and put the remaining soup in a bowl and carried it downstairs on a plate and left it just inside the mountain ash line on a table.   
  
Peter came downstairs just as Stiles was coming up. “She’s asleep now, she should be out for a while.”  
  
“Well, our prisoner is still asleep but I left him something to eat when he wakes up anyway.”  
  
“Alright, I need to talk to you and Derek later, hopefully before everyone else gets home, but I need to go get something first. I shouldn’t be gone for more than an hour. And Derek should be back soon.”   
  
“It’s okay. I’ve got one of the wolfsbane guns and some other tricks up my sleeves if anyone shows up.” Stiles was grateful, really. He was starting to feel crowded in his own house.  
  
“Okay. I’ll be back soon.”  
  
Stiles couldn’t really mountain ash around the house since Derek and Peter would be back soon, so he just took all of the supplies he’d gathered and mountain ashed the entrances to his bedroom to protect Erica, and the entrance to the bathroom. If the alpha pack did show up while he was taking a shower they wouldn’t be able to get to anyone in the house.   
  
Stiles plugged his iPod in to his waterproof speakers and found the Datsik remix of Animale. He didn’t turn the volume on too loud, but he hoped it was enough that if Erica was awake she would get a dubstep eargasm instead of an earful of his orgasm. He cracked himself up sometimes.  
  
Stiles quickly turned on the water and soaped up. He ran his hands across his chest, teasing his nipples with his thumbs. Slowly, he trailed a hand down his stomach and took his hardening cock in hand. He thought of how he woke up to Derek’s arms wrapped around him this morning, and imagined it was Derek’s hand on his cock, tightening his grip and twisting his wrist at the right places to make his dick jump. He started stroking slowly, teasing the head of his cock with his thumb. Gradually, he shifted into quicker, more aggressive pulls.   
  
He snaked his other hand behind him, sliding it down the crack of his ass, until he could gently tease and prod at his puckered hole. He slipped one finger inside and took a long, shaky breath out, relaxing so that he could move his finger. He imagined Derek doing this to him, opening him up, making him ready for Derek’s cock. His cock twitched in his hand and he hastened his movements, finger finding that bundle of nerves that sent lightning straight to his cock. He leaned into the wall, breathing harder, and moaned. He came spectacularly, crying Derek’s name, his come splattering the shower tiles. Stiles quickly cleaned up, spraying the come of the wall and watching it swirl down the drain.   
  
He dressed fast, then took the mountain ash out of the doorway, and went to his bedroom. Erica was awake and sitting up. She raised an eyebrow when he came into the room.   
  
“I know what you were doing in there.”   
  
“I’m sorry, I thought maybe you would be asleep.” He looked down at his feet.   
  
“It’s okay, but does our alpha know you think about him when you’re doing that?” She asked, teasing.  
  
“No, please Erica don’t tell him!” Stiles could feel his face heating in sheer mortification.   
  
“I won’t, Stiles.” She moved to get out of bed, “Do you have any clothes I could borrow? I need to pee, and I want to clean up and change.”  
  
“Are you feeling okay to move around?” Stiles looked at Erica, she looked a lot better than she did this morning, and both of her eyes were open.   
  
“Yeah, the stitches pull a lot when I try to move, but the claw marks itch more than they hurt right now.” Stiles helped her get out of bed. He grabbed a t-shirt and a pair of track shorts from when he wanted to run cross country out of the dresser. He moved the mountain ash from the door to the bedroom and helped her to the bathroom down the hall. Erica scrunched up her nose, “It smells like teenage arousal and come in here.”   
  
“I cleaned it up!” Erica scoffed. “Whatever. I’m a teenage boy with teenage boy hormones. It’s not my fault you have a super sniffer!” Erica rolled her eyes. “There are spare toothbrushes in the first drawer. Yell for me if you need anything.” Stiles shut the door and went back to his room. He picked up his cell and noticed that he had a few missed calls from Peter and a text from Derek. It just said ‘found boyd’ so he called Peter back.  
  
“Hey, are you with Derek? He texted that he found Boyd.”   
  
“Yeah, he’s actually in better shape than Erica was when we found her. He was impaled on a long metal spike, but once we pulled it out he healed almost immediately. He has claw marks, deeper than most of Erica’s but not as many. The worst thing that they did to him was claw his tongue out, though, so he won’t be able to speak for a long while.” Peter said something unintelligible, and handed the phone over to Derek.  
  
“We’re going to bring Boyd to your house, if that’s okay.”  
  
“Sure. Erica’s up now. She’s feeling better; I think she’s tired of lying around. I haven’t checked on our prisoner, yet, but I will once Erica is squared away.”   
  
“OK. We will be back in an hour or so.” Derek hung up. Erica had left the bathroom and was making her way toward the stairs, what she lacked in speed and mobility she made up for in determination.  
  
“Hey Erica, do you want help?”   
  
“I’m not helpless Stiles, I can do this.” She started down the steps taking one at a time. Her face was getting red, and she came to a full stop before bracing herself to take another. Stiles went back to his room grabbing his laptop and the charger. On second thought, he decided to get a change of clothes and a spare toothbrush and a bar of soap and a towel for the prisoner downstairs. He followed Erica down the stairs. She was taking forever, so he filled her in on what was going on with the pack and the prisoner downstairs.   
  
By the time Erica made it to the bottom step her face was red and she was crying. Stiles just looked at her appraisingly, there is no way on earth that he would have even attempted that with the injuries that she had. “Erica, you are amazing, you know that?” Erica smiled wryly and made her way to the couch. She looked around taking in the explosion of magic books on the floor and coffee table and picked one up, flipping through the pages. Stiles felt the need to explain. “We are looking for anything that can give us an advantage around the Alphas. Some of those were my mom’s and some of them belonged to Lydia’s aunt. There are some books that are translated. That one you have is in archaic Latin or something.”   
  
“Stiles, I was a geek, through and through before Derek bit me and gave me a new life. I had forgotten that for a while. Before, I was fluent in Tolkien’s Elvish, Klingon, and Circular Gallifreyan.  I understood the basics of a lot of other languages. I can’t fight right now, but maybe I can figure out how to read this book.” Stiles knew if she attacked this with as much gusto as she did the stairs, she would have it figured out in no time.   
  
“Well, I’m going to check on the prisoner.” He set the laptop beside Erica on the couch. “The basement is magically sound proofed. That paintball gun beside you is full of knock-out wolfsbane, so if anyone from the Alpha pack shows up, shoot them in the face or chest and call Derek.”   
  
When Stiles opened the door to the basement, he heard singing. A clear, country drawl sang out a love song and Stiles didn’t usually like country songs, but this was sexy. He made his way down the steps.  
  
“...I just wanna drink from the words you say/ And be everything you need/ Yeah I could be so good at lovin’ you/ but only if you told me to.” When Stiles appeared at the bottom of the stairs, the prisoner smiled a charming smile. “Why hello warden, you’re lookin’ mighty fine today.”  
  
Stiles played along, “I bet you say that to all of your captors.” He held up the clothes and toiletries. “I brought you some stuff. I would have brought you your shirt, but I don’t know where it is and it’s covered in wolfsbane.” He tossed the clothes and the werewolf caught them.   
  
The prisoner pulled the clothes up to his face and sniffed them, his eyes glowing yellow. “This your shirt, Warden? Hot damn! You even smell sexy!”  
  
Stiles blushed, “Well, I just wanted to make sure you have that stuff if you want it, the bathrooms over there.” He headed for the stairs.  
  
“Aw. Come on, Warden. Sit with me for a spell. I won’t bite...unless you want me to.” Stiles looked at the prisoner and the man got down on his knees. “You want me to beg? Please, Warden, Don’t leave me here all alone. I’ll just die of boredom.”   
Stiles shouldn’t stay. He hadn’t known until he came down the stairs just how much a country accent could turn him on. But every time this guy said ‘sit’ like ‘set’ and ‘want’ like ‘won’t’ the words went straight to Stiles’ cock. Stiles walked over and hopped onto the washer, crossing his legs Indian style. “So, Prisoner, you got a name?”  
  
“You can call me whatever you want, Warden. But name’s Jason.” He said the world like ‘Jay-Sun,’ drawing it out.   
  
“Hi, Jason, I’m Stiles. Stilinski. Stiles is a nickname, but everyone calls me Stiles.”  
  
“Well, Stiles. It’s so nice to meet you.” (‘whale’ ‘St-aye-les’)   
  
“So, how’d a guy like you end up in a pack like that?” Stiles asked.   
  
“I was in the woods, hunting, I’m from Oklahoma and it was deer season, snow on the ground. And I see the most beautiful buck. 10 points. Just pretty as you please. Get him in my sights, and shoot ‘em. Ka-POW! And I get him in the shoulder, and he runs. He’s bleeding pretty good though, so I take off after him. And I’m on this ridge, and I lose my footing and fall. Then, this guy walks up to me, dead middle of winter and he’s wearing shorts. So, I’m thinking  this Ol’ boy is crazier than a shithouse rat. But beggars can’t be choosers, right?” He looked at Stiles and shrugged. Stiles just nodded entranced by this guy’s accent and story.   
  
“Then he introduces himself as Travis, says that he can fix me up, on account of, he’s a werewolf. And if I coulda laughed, I would have. But then he gets all fuzzy and turns into a big fucking werewolf. And he says all I gotta do is join his pack and follow him. And I’m pretty sure I’m hallucinating and I’m about dead anyway. And I think, I ain’t got much in the way of family anyhow. My sister is addicted to crank. My brother’s in prison. Momma is always getting’ arrested for shoplifting. And Daddy’s a drunk who ‘won’t have no faggot for a son.’ So I think, what the hell, right? I’m probably hallucinating anyway and I’m ‘bout to die, so I say, ‘make me a werewolf.’ And he did. He ran with a pack of alphas, said it was safer. Until six months ago, he gets in a fight with Zane, the leader, and they kill him. And Zane, he offers my pack sister, Gayle, a choice. He says, ‘you can join us, or you can leave.’ And she says, ‘I wanna leave.’ And he kinda nods and points to the door. And she gets not more than a foot and Zane says, ‘Omega’s don’t last long in this world. Let this be a lesson to you all.’ And two of the Alphas, Caleb and Seth, the twins, they jump her and she’s dead within a couple of seconds. And then he gives the choice to us all.” Jason put air quotes around the word choice. “So I say I’ll stay.”   
  
The door to the basement slammed open and Derek stomped down the stairs. “Stiles! What are you doing down here by yourself?” He got to the bottom of the stairs and surveyed the scene in front of him. Derek looked back and forth between Stiles and Jason, face hard and crossed his arms. Jason raised an eyebrow at Derek. And Stiles got down from the top of the washer.  
  
“Jason was just telling me how he ended up in the Alpha pack.” Stiles stepped a little closer to Derek and Derek bridged the gap by crowding into Stiles’ space and leveled a glare at him.   
  
“Jason? You are on a first name basis with the prisoner now!?” Stiles looked at Derek trying to figure out why he’s gotten so upset.   
  
“Derek. He can’t hurt me. He can’t even get near me. Besides, I don’t think he wants to.”   
  
Jason called out. “I don’t want to hurt you, no. But I’d love to get near you.” Derek growled. If he had hackles, they would have risen. Derek pushed Stiles against the washer. Stiles thought that if Derek got any closer he’d pop a boner and that would just be embarrassing for both of them.  
  
“Derek, if it wasn’t safe, I wouldn’t be down here. And you’ve got to trust me, Derek.” Derek stopped pushing, and took half a step backward.  
  
“I do. I do trust you, Stiles. I shouldn’t have reacted that way. I’m... …I’m sorry, OK?”   
  
Stiles smiled “Now, was that so hard?” He teased. He put a reassuring hand on Derek’s bicep. “It’s okay, Derek. It’s good to know you care.” Stiles leaned his head to the side, exposing his neck to his Alpha. He tried desperately to think of every unsexy thing he could think of, and when Derek nuzzled his neck and licked a stripe from his collarbone to his ear before nipping at his neck, the only thing that kept Stiles from getting hard was the thought of Coach Finstock having sex. Well not quite just that. He also had to think of Mr. Harris having sex. Okay, not even that, it had to be them having sex together to keep Stiles from almost creaming his pants.  
  
Derek’s voice was a little lower when he finally spoke. “Peter needs to talk to us.”  
  
Stiles nodded, “Bye, Jason. I’ll bring you dinner down later, Okay?”   
  
“Later, Warden. I’ll be waiting with bated breath for your return.” Stiles did a little half-wave and Jason winked. Derek glowered at Jason while Stiles ascended the steps. When Stiles was about halfway up, Jason called after him. “I’m gonna shower now, and think about you. Then I’m gonna put your clothes on and get your scent all over me.” Stiles laughed. “I’m going to imagine how delicious your dick would taste!” Derek lunged, but the mountain ash kept him out just as effectively as it kept Jason in. Stiles shook his head and rolled his eyes as he left the basement.  
  
****  
  
Derek was stomping around, fuming and Stiles guessed that it had to do with Jason, which means that he’ll probably never get a place in this pack. Stiles had kind of hoped that maybe they could recruit Jason, but not if it would get Derek thrown into jail for actual murder.  
  
Peter, Boyd and Erica were sitting in the living room. Erica was leaning on Boyd, and talking to Peter. Boyd had a paper and pen in his hand, and every once in a while he would write something and show it to Erica, who would say ‘Boyd said...’ Stiles was glad that they seemed alright.  
  
“Hey guys. Boyd, I’m glad to see you back home.” He smiled and Boyd nodded. Stiles looked at Peter, “You needed to talk to us?”   
  
“Yes. Upstairs?” Peter stood and started up the stairs. Stiles shrugged and followed him. They all went into Stiles’ room. “I wanted to show you the memories of the fire, Stiles, but I don’t think I’m ready for that. It’s just too much, but I do have another memory that would be beneficial for both you and Derek to see, if you don’t mind.”   
  
Stiles nodded and Derek shrugged. “Okay.”  
  
The memory came quickly.  
  
 ** _DEREK? Can you hear me, too? Does it work like that?_**  
  
 ** _Yes. I can hear you._**  
 ** _  
COOL!_**  
  
 _Derek was standing over Peter, a swipe of claws across his throat and Peter felt himself dying.  
  
_ _It was white, plain. Not what he’d imagined heaven to be, or hell for that matter.  
  
_ _“Hey Wolf-Boy.” Peter turned and Jeanie was standing behind him. He rushed over and kissed her cheek. He hugged her tightly to him; he didn’t want to let her go.  
  
_ _“I die and yours is the first face I see. I must have barely squeaked into heaven.” Peter felt happy again, whole.  
  
_ _“No. Not dead yet. You are Donna Noble.”  
_ _“What? I don’t know what that means.” Peter looked confused.  
  
_ _“Donna Noble has left the Library. Donna Noble has been saved.” She shook her head. “It’s a reference to a show Stiles watches. This sentient library saves people by putting their consciousnesses into a constructed simulation. Therefore, I’m the library, you are Donna Noble.”  
  
_ _Well, that cleared up absolutely nothing. “So, where am I?”  
  
_ _“An in between place I created. I call it the Room of Requirement, another reference. Basically, it changes to suit my needs.” The room shifted around them to become the old Hale library. “I didn’t actually do this myself; I had magic greater than mine to create this place. When I realized that I wouldn’t be around, I needed this place to watch over the pack. I wanted to be able to help if they ever need me. And they need me now. They need us now. I am going to send you back and you are going to help put the pack back together.”  
  
_ _“Do I have any say in any of this?” Peter asked.  
  
_ _“Not particularly, no.” Jeanie replied.  
  
_ _“Alright. Just making sure.” Peter smiled. “Jeanie, I missed you so much. I just am so glad to be here with you, now.”  
  
_ _“Hi, Uncle Peter.” Laura walked toward him, tears in her eyes. She hugged him. “It’s okay. I love you.”  
  
_ _“I’m sorry, Laura. I’m so sorry, Sweetie. I never meant to...” Peter started crying.  
  
_ _“I know. I’m sorry, too. I never should have left you. I never should have split up the pack.” Laura confessed.  
  
_ _Wolf ran up and hugged them, howling. Mark and Luna joined in. Peter looked around for his family, for Emily and the kids. He really wanted to see little Matty, Marcus, and Callie.  
  
_ _“Some of the pack already moved on by the time I got here. The children, especially. Wolf is waiting for Wendy, Mark and Luna are waiting for Derek and Laura. Ashley stayed behind to help. Same as me.” Jeanie explained.  
  
_ _“...And I stayed behind for you.” Peter turned toward Jack’s voice. He rushed forward taking the other man into his arms, pressing kisses into every inch of his face.  
  
_ _“I don’t want to go back. I want to stay here, with you!” Peter cried.  
  
_ _“You can’t, Petey. You have to go back. I love you, more than you could ever know, but you have to go back.” Jack touched Peter’s face. “You are going to have love, and happiness. So much joy. Sure, there will be sadness and stresses. But there will be so much happiness. And then, when you are ready, you will come back to me, here and we will move on to the next life together.” Jack kissed Peter’s lips. “We will be together again. But you have to be ready to move on, for now.” He looked steadily into Peter’s eyes. “Promise me. Promise that you won’t miss your chance at finding love because of me. Not again. Not ever.”  
  
_ _Peter was too choked up to say anything, so he just nodded.  
  
_ _“Promise?” Jack prompted.  
  
_ _Finally, Peter could speak. “I promise. I love you, Jack.”  
  
_ _“I know. I love you, too.”  They didn’t break apart again until Ashley cleared her throat loudly.  
  
_ _“Thank you for the creepy old guy make out session. My afterlife just wasn’t complete until my uncles got frisky with each other.” She threw her hands in the air. “Now can we get to work?”  
  
_ _It was finally time. Plans had changed so many times. Wendy wasn’t available or was too far away for Jeanie to get help from, and they had to use her niece, Lydia. She was reluctant and they had to practically bully her into helping. Peter knew that when they got through all of this he owed Lydia the biggest apology. Jackson threw another kink into the plans, by turning into a kanima. They had to rush things a little. He had said his goodbyes to his family. The only ones still around were Jeanie, Laura, and Jack.  
  
_ _Laura approached. “When Jeanie was still alive, she filled a laptop with information. It’s a bestiary and a spell book, and a grimoire all rolled into one. When I returned to Beacon Hills, I brought it with me. I hid it under the stairs in the old house. You are probably going to need it. The pack will definitely need it.” She gave him one last hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Bye Uncle Peter. I love you.”  
  
_ _Jeanie gave him a brief tear-soaked goodbye and left. Then there was just Jack.  
  
_ _“Remember. You are meant to be happy in this life. You are meant to find love again.”  
  
_ _“I know. I love you.” Peter kissed Jack goodbye. And then he was alone.  
_  
****  
  
“Wow. That was... Mom’s still there?” Stiles asked. Peter nodded.   
  
Derek looked stunned. His eyes were brimming with tears. Then, suddenly, his arms were wrapped around his uncle. “You really came back to help me?” Peter nodded. Then Stiles joined the hug and they all cried together.   
  
“Peter, you need to watch Doctor Who. After this alpha pack is dealt with, we are having a marathon.” Stiles announced. Peter just laughed and they broke apart.   
  
When they got back downstairs, most of the rest of the people Stiles considered pack were downstairs already. Lydia and Erica were bonding over translating the old books. Erica leaned over every once in a while to ask Lydia about a definition. Scott was lamenting about Allison ignoring him at school and Isaac and Jackson were rolling their eyes at him. The sheriff and Melissa McCall were chatting while Melissa changed some of Boyd’s bandages. When Scott saw Stiles enter the room he asked what was for dinner. “I was thinking maybe Chicken Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy and Green Beans.” Stiles answered and grabbed a notepad to write out a grocery list for Scott to go get the ingredients he needed.  
  
The sheriff smiled. “Well, if that’s how Stiles is going to cook, you can all stay forever.”   
  
“Don’t get used to it.” Stiles warned.   
  
Lydia looked at Stiles, eyes narrowed. “Does this have anything to do with the hot southern werewolf downstairs?”   
  
“What? No. WHAT?!? NO! no. How did you even know he was... never mind, don’t even answer that.” Stiles finished his list and tore it off the notepad with a flourish, and handed it to Scott. “Take Isaac and Danny with you. Just in case the Alpha pack decides to attack. Take the paintball gun with you and...” He looked to Lydia.  
  
She nodded. “And this.” She held out a gun to Danny. “Tranquilizer gun. Stiles got some kanima venom from police lock up, and we coated the darts with it.”   
  
The boys had no trouble at the grocery store and dinner went off without a hitch. Stiles was preparing a plate to take down to their captive when the doorbell rang.   
  
“Wendy! Hi!” Stiles smiled at the woman in the doorway. “Come on in!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song Jason is singing is by Hunter Hayes "If you told me to" 
> 
> And Jason's accent is pretty much the same as mine. Once, my husband and I had a total breakdown in communication over the word WELL. I was telling him a story about a guy who was walking in the woods and fell into an old well, and He was like 'A WHALE?" and I was like "Yeah, a well" And he was like "A WHALE?? In Southern OKLAHOMA????" 
> 
> Anyway, I really like writing for Jason. I sincerely hope Derek doesn't kill him.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I added two characters, unplanned, right before I started writing this chapter. So, hopefully I'll get the next chapter up more quickly. 
> 
> Still unbeta'd. Every mistake is my own.

Wendy smiled and turned. “Don’t just hang back there. Get over here and say ‘Hi’ to Stiles!” Stiles was shocked to see two children standing awkwardly behind Wendy. He loved kids, really, so he got on one knee and talked directly to the girl, who seemed less shy than the boy.  
  
“Hi, I’m Stiles. What’s your name?” He asked the girl with strawberry blonde hair.   
  
She ignored the question. “Mommy said we had to move here because you are pack.”   
  
Stiles contained his shock and smiled, “Of course, we are.”   
  
The girl smiled and held out her hand, “I’m Wolf, pleased to meet you.” She pushed past him, asking, “Do you have anything to eat? I’m starving.”   
  
Wendy pushed the little boy closer to Stiles. “This is my son, Jack.” She looked down at the boy. “It’s okay, you goober, he’s pack.” The little boy launched himself at Stiles, wrapping his arms around Stiles neck and burying his face in Stiles shoulder, breathing him in.   
  
The boy didn’t seem like he was going to let go any time soon, so Stiles stood, picking him up off the ground. The little boy wrapped his legs around Stiles torso and Stiles looked over his shoulder at Wendy. “You have some explaining to do.”  
  
“I know.” They walked into the living room where everyone in the pack was staring at the little girl in shock. “Okay, I have something to tell you all.” Wendy started. Stiles sat down in one of the armchairs, and Jack seemed happy enough to sit on his lap. “So, these are my kids. Wolf and Jack, this is the Pack.” She pointed to Lydia. “This is your cousin Lydia. And that,” She pointed at the Sourwolf who was standing against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, scowling. “Is Derek, your cousin and your Alpha.” Jack looked over at Derek in awe. He scrambled off of Stiles’ lap and timidly walked closer to where Derek was standing. He leaned into the wall and crossed his arms, too, emulating Derek. Stiles noticed the twitch of amusement at the corner of Derek’s mouth.  
  
Wolf had her hands on her hips, “Now, who's going to get me something to eat?” Mrs. McCall got up and took the little girl to the kitchen to get her some food and Jim followed. Stiles guessed that he didn’t want to get involved too closely with this pack business.   
  
After they had left the room, Wendy explained. “So, Wolf and I were mated for years, and a few months before the fire we decided to expand our family. We talked to Mark and Luna, and they encouraged us to go ahead. We took eggs from both of us, and an old friend from Colorado donated sperm, and had the eggs implanted in me. Which is why Wolf is a witch and Jack is a wolf.” Stiles took a glance toward Derek and saw that little Jack had ventured even closer to the alpha, and Derek was looking down at the younger boy with what could only be described as fondness. Jack took one more tentative step and reached Derek’s side, and slowly leaned into him pushing his face into Derek’s side to smell him. Derek looked down at the boy, slightly shocked and then carefully put a hand on the kid’s shoulder. Derek looked like a big bundle of anxiety and nerves and a little bit of fear, like he was afraid that if he let himself be happy he’d screw it all up. He just looked so fucking vulnerable that Stiles wanted to go and plaster himself to Derek’s other side and wrap his arms around Derek, sharing the joy that he was feeling. Making sure that Derek could feel the excitement and happiness.   
  
He didn’t really know how long he had been grinning stupidly in Derek’s direction. But he was sitting close to Erica and Boyd, and suddenly, a notebook was slammed into his lap. In Erica’s loopy scrawl, it said: _Quit looking at our Alpha like you want to jump his bones and adopt his babies! Obvious much?_  Stiles wrote back: _I’m not. Jack is just so cute, I was smiling at him._ Erica: _Liar! Besides, that look on your face was far from innocent. And if it was meant for the kid, that is called "pedophilia," my dear children, and is in fact frowned upon in most societies._ Stiles: _Way to bastardize Charlie and the Chocolate Factory._ In lieu of replying, Erica just stuck her tongue out at Stiles. He turned his attention back to Wendy.  
  
Lydia was interrogating her on why no one knew that she had kids. And while it may have been important to Lydia, Stiles was just glad that they were here now. He let his mind wander for a bit. And then he remembered Jason. He jumped up, “Carry on, everybody. I just got to go feed my prisoner.” Derek growled. “Stop that, Sourwolf, you’re scaring your cousin. Somebody has to talk to the guy, we wanted to get information out of him, remember?”   
  
He walked over to stand in front of Derek. Derek still looked annoyed, so Stiles leaned in and exposed his neck to his alpha, which earned him a quick nip. Derek still looked frustrated, but he didn’t argue when Stiles headed for the kitchen to reheat the plate of food for Jason.   
  
Jason gave Stiles a wide smile when he saw him coming down the stairs. “Warden, you came back. I was starting to miss your gorgeous face!”   
  
Stiles smiled. “I brought you some food.”   
  
Jason took the plate eagerly and sat on the cot and started eating. “Thanks, Stiles. This is the best last meal a man could ever ask for!”  
  
Stiles rolled his eyes and laughed. “We aren’t going to execute you.” Jason stiffened and didn’t say anything. “You do know that, right? Unless you are dangerous to our pack, I won’t let Derek hurt you.”  
  
“Yeah. Forget I said anything.” Jason looked down at his plate and started eating. Stiles felt like he was hiding something.   
  
“What did you mean by that anyway?” He narrowed his eyes and studied Jason, “It’s not Derek you’re scared of...Is it your own pack? Why would they want to hurt you?”  
  
Jason put his plate down. He stood and started pacing, running his hand through his hair. “I told you that my alpha was killed six months ago, right?” Stiles nodded. “Well, when I was turned a year ago, I landed myself and Travis on Zane’s shit list. See, Travis was the only one that was an alpha when he met Zane. From what I hear, the original plan was to gather together several packs, they were gonna hunt down the hunters that didn’t follow the code. But they couldn’t get any other packs to join them, and then one of the packs attacked them instead. So, when they killed that pack, Zane held down the alpha and let his sister kill him. That’s how the alpha pack started.” Jason sighed and sat back down. “Anyway, so Zane changed the plans, came up with the idea to take out weak packs, and then give the alpha’s power to his betas. But there were rules, Zane got to approve everyone’s betas, he got first choice of betas, and could take another alpha in the pack’s beta at any time. And no other alpha in the pack gets more betas than Zane. When Travis made me, he broke the rules.”   
  
“So what happened?”  
  
“Well, Zane’s betas are bloodthirsty; they are always competing for top spot. No one gets the chance to become an alpha if they aren’t in Zane’s pack, so the other alpha’s betas are always challenging Zane’s betas. So, Zane wants to put me in his pack, but Travis knows that I won’t last a day there. I’m a lover, not a fighter.” Jason looks at Stiles and winks. “Anyway he tells Zane that I’d be better off doing recon missions with Melanie. And Melanie has two less betas than Zane, so I go off to her as a loner. I’m supposed to go with her, about a month in advance, and check out the packs. Report back. So I do. Travis confronts Zane, says they have enough alphas to go after the hunters that break the code, now. He wants to move on to the next part of the plan. But Zane has changed it all. He wants to keep going, put himself up as some sort of werewolf king. They fight. Travis gets killed and I start lying, just a little. Not telling them all of the pertinent information. Mel caught me in a few of them, but she covers for me because I don’t think she really agrees with what her brother is doing either.  
  
Anyway, so last month I get here, and I enroll in your school, because most of Derek’s betas go there. I’m a senior so I can pretty much stay out of the way of the werewolves in the school, so as not to give myself away. And Derek’s betas, I get them. I understand why they do what they do. And you are the only one I can’t figure out. You constantly stick your neck out for werewolves that don’t even see you. They don’t see how much work you do to help them out. And you smell like an oncoming storm, and electricity, and books. And you have horrible taste in music; you listen to more Childish Gambino than any person has a right to. You psych yourself up when you are doing something that makes you nervous or scared or is just fucking dangerous. But you always do it anyway. Because you care just too damn much not to. You love your dad and you want to keep him safe and healthy. And it’s ruining my life because I want to protect YOU and keep YOU safe. I want you guys to win. And I don’t even care that you winning means my death, because _you_ would still be here. Ya know?”  
  
Stiles is actually speechless. He just stares dumbly at Jason.  
  
“Anyway, I found out about the magic yesterday, and I knew that Zane would figure out that I’m lying. Mel ignored the lies, and didn’t push for more information. But Zane would. So I had two options really, go to Zane and refuse to tell him the truth and let him kill me. Or get myself caught and let you guys kill me. I didn’t think the blonde guy, (Jackson?) would let me live when I approached the redhead. And I ended up here.” He stood and walked until he was almost on the mountain ash line, “I am a werewolf without an alpha.” He knelt on the ground, looking at Stiles. “I need an alpha and I choose you.” He exposed his neck to Stiles.  
  
“What the actual fuck?” Stiles was so confused. “I’m not an ALPHA! I’m not even a werewolf!!”  
  
“I know. I don’t care.”   
  
“But you can’t do this! Is it even possible? How can a werewolf take a human as his alpha?”  
  
“It’s possible. It’s actually been done before.” Stiles looked up in shock. He hadn’t noticed that Peter was in the room at all.  
  
“How long have you been here?”   
  
“Oh, since he told you that you smelled like an oncoming storm.” Peter was smirking like this was the funniest damn thing he had ever witnessed. “I didn’t know that you were actually capable of being stunned speechless, Stiles.” Peter stopped smiling. “So, yes, a werewolf can choose a human alpha, but most werewolves aren’t that stupid.” He gave a withering look to Jason. “When a werewolf without an alpha chooses one, they usually go for someone who can protect them, who’s physically stronger than they are. Apparently this one didn’t get the memo.” Peter shook his head. “But logistically, a werewolf is physically incapable of baring his neck to someone whom he doesn’t trust and care for enough to be his alpha. So, the claim is legitimate. For the pack, it would be kind of the same as it is in the alpha pack; Derek is your alpha, Jason would be your beta, and as such Jason would follow you. And he would do as Derek instructed, as long as you agree with those directives. If something were to happen to you, it would sever the link between Derek and Jason. They could go their separate ways. But being an alpha is a pretty big responsibility, and you shouldn’t make that choice until you talk to Derek about it.”  
  
“Okay.” He looked back at Jason. “Okay, I can’t deal with this right now; I need to think it over. I’ll come back and talk to you later, alright?” Jason looked disappointed, but he nodded and stood up and brushed himself off.   
  
Stiles practically ran up the stairs. When he got back to the living room Derek was nipping at Jack’s neck, apparently having decided to take them into his new pack. Scott was looking at Stiles confusedly, so Stiles moved and sat down by him and Isaac.   
  
“What’s with all the neck biting? Does Derek have a fetish, or what?” Scott stage whispered to Stiles.  
  
“Are you even serious right now? You are a werewolf, this stuff should be, like, instinctive!” Scott just looked at Stiles, blankly. “Okay. Well, when a pack member bares his neck to his alpha he’s saying that he trusts him, that he recognized him as his leader, that he chooses that person to be his alpha, not because he has to, because he wants to.” All of the werewolves are looking at Stiles in interest, so maybe it wasn’t as instinctual as he had thought it was.   
  
Derek looked at Stiles smiling. “And the alpha is saying that he trusts his pack member, that he will protect him, that he values him.” Stiles smiled and stood up walking to Derek.  
  
“You are my alpha.”   
  
“And you are my pack.”   
  
“And now that that’s been established...” Peter jumped in. “Jason just asked Stiles to be his alpha.”   
  
And then, pandemonium erupted. Derek growled. Choruses and echoes of ‘what?’ and ‘why?’ and ‘is that even possible?’ rang out in the room before finally settling down.  
  
“But really, what the fuck?!?”  
  
“Scott Andrew McCall! Language!” Melissa warned.  
  
“Sorry, mom.” Scott said. He turned on Stiles, throwing his hands in the air.   
  
Stiles just shrugged and looked at Peter. “You are the one who brought it up in front of everybody.”   
  
Peter gave them a quick rundown of everything. Yes, it’s legitimate. No, it wouldn’t change Stiles place in Derek’s pack, unless Derek were to kick him out. No, there is no way that Jason could be secretly working with the alpha pack and make that claim. And then, for absolutely no reason he told everyone that “Jason said that Stiles smelled like an oncoming storm. Poetic, isn’t it?”   
  
Stiles groaned and covered his face. “So, what do I do? I mean, it would basically mean an extra person to fight for this pack.”  
  
Wendy studied Stiles, “You would have to train him and take care of him. He will be bound to you forever. If you are angry with each other, if he’s emotionally or physically hurt, he would need you. Because he’s a werewolf, he would need you more than you need him. If you fought, and he left or went omega, even if you hated him you would feel the bond, and the loss would be heartbreaking.”   
  
“I know. I’m okay with that. I can do it.” Stiles looked at Derek, daring him to tell him differently. “What do you think?”  
  
“You could do it.” Derek’s face was stern. “I don’t like it, but it’s your decision.”  
  
“I’ll give him the night to change his mind. I’ll talk to him about it again in the morning.” Stiles turned to Wendy and changed the subject. “So, I believe you said you could help me bring my memories back?”  
  
“Yeah.  Sit down here. She sat in front of him on the floor. Wolf, go get Mommy’s bag out of the car, please.”  Wolf grabbed the keys out of Wendy’s hand and ran outside. “This might hurt so you have to push through and try to access the memories yourself.” Stiles nodded.   
  
Wolf returned and Wendy lit candles, and had wolf place them and around the room. Then, she took a paint pen and handed it to Wolf, who drew something on her hands, and then Stiles’. “Okay, take my hands and don’t let go. Shut your eyes.” Stiles nodded and put his hands in Wendy’s.   
  
Stiles expected physical pain, not the mental and emotional anguish that he was experiencing. He felt loss, devastating and powerful. His heart was pounding and he felt like he couldn’t breathe. He wanted to jerk away, to make it stop. But he knew that he couldn’t so he held tighter and tried to push through it. He didn’t know how long he sat there, crying in agony. But, slowly he felt himself being pulled out of it, he opened his eyes and Derek was sitting over him.   
  
“Oh, thank god, Stiles. Are you okay?” Stiles nodded and pushed himself up into a sitting position. He had his memories back. Spending time with Derek. The whole Hale Pack playing and laughing with each other. All of them dead, standing at the funeral and trying so hard not to have a panic attack. His mom. And...  
  
Tears were running down his cheeks. He held up his hands. Felt a spark. He tugged carefully at the spark and it turned into a flame. Soon, it turned into a visible ball of light in his hands. He swirled it around, adding colors. Then, he lifted his hands and the ball of light levitated out of them. When it got high enough, he flexed his hands, splaying his fingers and the ball of light burst apart.   
  
Each piece of the ball was a different hologram. Pictures. Memories. The Hales, Stiles’ Mom, Derek, Derek, Derek, all laughing and playing, filling the room in little balls of light. They sat like that for a few seconds. Stiles just staring at his memories in the air. Then he pulled the ball back together and it dissipated.   
  
There was dead silence for a second before Lydia’s voice rang out across the room. “What the HELL was that?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, what do you guys think about the kids? And is it terrible of me that I'm starting to have polyamorous Stiles feels?
> 
> Every time I post a new chapter, I feel like this is going to be the one everyone reads and is like 'Nope, Kandice, you took it one step to far. I just can't believe this anymore.' So, here's hoping this chapter with the kids and Jason and the magic isn't the chapter that you all abandon me on.


	12. Chapter 12

Derek watched as Stiles’ memories flooded the room, his confusion turning to awe. Many of the images featured Derek himself, and he was touched by the fact that most of Stiles’ memories of Derek were happy ones. When the images finally faded, Derek was too stunned to say anything, but that didn’t stop Lydia who demanded to know what the hell was going on. Wendy and Peter looked at Stiles expectantly, clearly at a loss to explain what was happening as well.  
  
“To explain that, I’m going to have to explain magic.” Stiles started, he looked at Wendy, “I was just a little kid when I learned a lot of this, so correct me if I say anything wrong.” Wendy nodded and Stiles continued. “Way back when people regularly used and understood magic, the people that used it were categorized into different types based on the primary way they used magic. Everyone has latent magic within them. Each person has a natural path, if they choose to practice magic. For example, Wendy is a witch. Not just because it is her birthright, but because it’s because that path feels the most natural to her. Witches derive their power from nature. From elements and the earth. Being a witch has a bit of a religious aspect. No, not religious, exactly, more like...spiritual. Anyway, they show respect and reverence to nature. They, in turn, derive power from it.  
  
Alan Deaton is a Shaman. Shamanism derives power from the ancestors of the shaman. They hold council with shamans before them. Now, witches can use power from their ancestors, and shaman can use power from nature, but their designation is about their primary source. Same goes for the next one, which is wizardry, but not the Harry Potter type.  
  
Wizards, like my mom, derive their power mainly from magic itself. Okay, that didn’t explain it as well as I wanted to.” Stiles took a contemplative pause. “So, wizards are like the scientists of the magic community. They study magic. They break it down into its individual parts, and then they find new ways to use it, to put it back together in ways that are new and inventive.   
  
Now, there are other types of magic users, necromancers, people who use voodoo, etcetera. But those are irrelevant right now. And they would take a long time to explain.” Derek was curious about the other types of magic, but he wanted to find out what exactly Stiles was, so he didn’t say anything. He had never paid much attention to the magic users in the pack. As alpha, he felt the need to correct that. The best way to protect the pack is to know each of the strengths and weaknesses of the members of that pack.   
  
Stiles continued, “Alan Deaton called me a Spark, which is mostly accurate. Sparks derive their power from within. For most sparks, their magic is a calm energy inside themselves. It’s an internal magic. They, like all of the others, can use other types of power, but their internal magic makes it a little stronger. But, there is a rare type of spark, under the perfect storm of shit circumstances, they can become something else. For example, a young child loses most of his family in a fire, his best friend and the most important person in his world moves to the other side of the country, and then his mom gets cancer.   
  
That boy’s normally calm, peaceful magic turns in on itself. It starts to generate new magic at an extremely accelerated rate. The small spark becomes an inferno. It’s a constant buzzing of nervous energy, an electrical storm just under his skin. The magic manifests itself in bizarre and impossible ways. What once was a spark is now a Sorcerer. Basically, I generate enough magic to become a source of magic myself.”   
  
“That’s...impossible.” Peter argued. “There hasn’t been a true sorcerer for...”   
  
Wendy cut in. “Seven hundred years.” She whispered both in awe and fear.   
  
“Well, you’re talking to someone who, at nine years old, created an alternative universe for his dying mother, so that she would never have to leave him. So, let’s not discuss what is possible, alright?” Stiles looked visibly shaken, like he couldn’t wrap his head around what he had just learned, and trying to explain it to everyone else was taking its toll on him. Derek reached over and put an arm on Stiles’ shoulder. It seemed to give Stiles enough courage to continue. “So, when my powers went wonky, mom put a spell on me to block my powers, and my memories that might trigger my powers. She hoped that I wouldn’t get my powers back until I was mature enough to handle the responsibility and not just do whatever my brain comes up with.”  
  
Peter studied Stiles. “Not to mention that if word got out that there was a sorcerer here, well, I suspect this town would be in a world of shit. Imagine an entire bestiary worth of supernatural creatures wanting to use the sorcerer for their own purposes; and the magical element, too, especially the wizard types; then, you have to assume that hotbed of supernatural activity would bring down the hunters. So,” He looked around the room, seriously, making sure to catch everyone’s eyes. “When I tell you all that this information cannot leave this house, I mean it. Stiles’ life depends on this staying confidential.”   
  
“Yeah, Anyway,” Stiles waved his hand, dismissing Peter’s accusational tone because these people are his family. He trusts them implicitly. “After my mom blocked my access to my magic, it was still there, it got misinterpreted as ADHD. And when I got my memory back, I knew how to access my power. So I did, but I only accessed a small piece, just to test it. Sorcery is not something I want to just dive in to; not without making sure I won’t do any harm. I had no control when I accessed my powers, before, and I don’t want to try anything without preparing, maybe training.”   
  
“I think I have some books about the old sorcerers,” Wendy mentioned, “If we start there, maybe there is something in the old books that will help us train you, and Alan and I could teach you what we know. Wendy turned to Lydia, “Now, what we need to know is, do you want to learn magic?”  
  
Lydia pursed her lips thoughtfully. “Yes, but I don’t think I would be a good witch, I might want to try something else. Maybe do what Stiles’ mom did?”  
  
Derek looked around at the pack sitting in the living room chatting with each other. They had actually started to feel like a real pack. Every single person was there because of Stiles, if not because they cared about Stiles, then because Stiles cared about them. Derek was amazed about how closer the pack bonds felt over the last few days. It was getting late, and they needed to have a real pack meeting the next day to coordinate training efforts, if nothing else. “Before we have the meeting tomorrow, we need to look into sound proofing the house like you did the basement. I don’t want the alpha pack overhearing what we are talking about. I really hope they aren’t listening right now.”  
  
“I’m trying to block the sound magically, but I don’t know if it’s actually working or not.” Stiles said and looked around. “The kids look like they are about to drop. We have a lot to do tomorrow, so we should all try to get some sleep.” He turned to Boyd, “Erica has been sleeping in my bed. I can make you up an air mattress unless you’d rather share with her.” Boyd just nodded and picked Erica up and carried her toward the stairs.   
  
“Well, Erica and Boyd are out of the woods. They don’t need around the clock care anymore.” Melissa McCall pointed out. “So, I’d like to go home. Scott and Isaac can come with me in case there are any other werewolves around.”  
  
Derek was about to say that he didn’t think that was a good idea, but Stiles nodded. “Sure, just let us follow you home so I can make sure the mountain ash barrier holds.” He looked to Lydia. “That leaves a free air mattress if you guys would like to stay.”   
  
Lydia agreed and sent Jackson upstairs to retrieve the air mattress because Stiles’ room was crowded. Peter said he would sleep on the couch and Stiles could have his air mattress so that he didn’t have to share with Derek.  
  
Derek jumped in. “Well, Danny do you want the extra air mattress?” Danny shook his head and said he was fine sharing with Jackson and Lydia. Derek looked at Wendy. “How about putting the kids on the extra air mattress? It will give you more room.” Derek ignored the narrow eyed inspection he was getting from Lydia.   
  
Wendy nodded and Stiles looked at Derek. “Well, looks like it’s you and me again, Sourwolf.” Derek shrugged and told himself that it really didn’t matter where anyone was sleeping. He just offered it to the others to be nice, really.   
  
Derek went with Stiles to put the mountain ash around Scott’s house. They settled into bed and Derek watched Stiles as his breath evened out and he fell asleep. Derek followed Stiles into dreamland. He was awakened a few hours later, when he heard and “Oomph!” from Stiles.  
  
Derek was close to Stiles, his lips touching Stiles neck. His chest was pressed into Stiles back and their legs were tangled up together. “What the... Oh hey, Buddy.” Stiles said. Derek opened his eyes to see smaller yellow eyes peering at Stiles.  
  
In the darkness, Derek could see Stiles smile at the youngest werewolf. Jack looked sheepishly at Stiles. “Sorry, Stiles. I just wanted to... Can I come sleep with you and Alpha?” This was the first time he had heard the kid speak. He was so shy and awkward. Stiles’ smile grew much bigger and he nodded. He scooted away from Derek, making a space for the small werewolf between them.  
  
“No problem, Dude. Hop on in.” When the little boy scrambled in between Derek and Stiles, both Stiles and Derek curled into the boy. Derek ran his fingers through Jack’s hair and Stiles rubbed circles on the little boy’s back. Stiles smiled over the boy at Derek and even though Stiles couldn’t see him, or maybe because Stiles couldn’t see him, Derek smiled back. Stiles whispered to the little boy, “You are pack. We love you to the moon and back.”   
  
_You are pack. I love you to the moon and back._ Derek couldn’t remember how many times he had heard that in his childhood. How many times had he said it to Stiles? Hundreds of times, at least. Derek’s mother had said it to him before bed every night. He and his siblings had always said it to each other. He hadn’t heard it since the fire. Surprising tears stung at Derek’s eyes. For some reason, those little words whispered before Jack and Stiles fell asleep were a beautiful reminder that for the first time since the fire, Derek really had a family. He wanted so badly for this to be his. He wanted the rest of his life to be a string of moments like these. But there was the alpha pack to deal with. They had to win against the alphas. He couldn’t let these people, his family, down. Not now, not again, not ever.  
  
When Jack and Stiles were completely asleep, Derek extricated himself from his bed mates, and snuck downstairs. He paused at the basement door. He had to see for himself that the werewolf downstairs didn’t have ulterior motives where Stiles was concerned. He had to protect his pack. He steeled himself and headed into the basement.  
  
“Well, I’ll be.” Jason drawled. “If it isn’t Alpha Hale. What brings you around these here parts?”   
  
“Will you stop with the southern belle act? You and I both know you aren’t that stupid.”  
  
“Fine.” Jason’s accent was slightly less exaggerated. “You came down here to threaten me. Probably to figure out why I asked Stiles and not you to be my alpha. But mostly, you want to make for absolute sure that I won’t steal your boy away from you, but you are going to disguise it as concern for your pack.”  
  
Derek snorted. “I am concerned about my pack.”  
  
“Maybe, but you are more worried that after this is all over, Stiles and I will ride off into the sunset and you’d be left in the dust. Well, I don’t know exactly what will happen, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that I won’t be the one that makes those decisions.” Jason walked closer to the line of demarcation stretching across the basement. “Although, to be honest, I hope you choose to let him go. It would save him a world of heartbreak in the end.”   
  
Derek growled and bared his teeth. “What’s that supposed to mean?” He spat.  
  
“That man, that wonderful, loyal, amazing man, he is totally and uselessly in love with you.” Jason started. Derek said nothing.“I know guys like you. Hell, I’ve had guys like you. All broody, and self-sacrificing, trying to punish yourself for who the fuck knows what. You wallow in your self inflicted manpain. You won’t take what you want, as punishment to yourself. But you won’t really let him go either. So you’ll do things that make him think he has a chance, pull him closer to you. Then, when he gets too close, you’ll push him away. He’ll get insecure and cling tighter, so you’ll push harder and further. Until he can’t take it anymore, and then he’ll cut ties with everyone and everything he loves just to get the hell away from you.” He glared into Derek’s eyes. Derek shifted and launched himself at Jason being stopped by the invisible barrier holding Jason in.   
  
Jason laughed. “Oh Alpha Hale, you do know what mountain ash does, right?” Derek focused on shifting back, he was angry with himself more than Jason, really. He was a born werewolf. His focus and control should be so much better than this. What was it about this Jason that pissed him off so much. _Probably because he’s right_ , a voice inside his head told him.   
  
Jason shook his head. “The sad thing, though. I like Stiles, I really do. And I really want him to be happy. And I’m pretty sure that he’s only going to be happy if he gets to be with you. Which sucks for me. Piss or get off the pot, Hale. You probably don’t deserve him, but he wants you. If you don’t treat him right, I will.”  
Derek sunk to the basement floor, leaning his back against the wall. “You don’t deserve him either.”   
  
“Yeah, but the difference is, I’ll take him anyway and spend the rest of my life trying to become the kind of guy that does deserve him.”   
  
Derek growled. “You are kind of an unbearable sap, you know?” He rolled his eyes.   
  
“I prefer ridiculously romantic.” Jason smiled.  
  
“So why Stiles? Not why you like him, that’s obvious, just why did you choose him as your alpha?”  
  
“The way I see it, I have two choices. Stiles, who I already like and trust, or you. And you don’t seem to inspire pack loyalty and confidence if your runaways are anything to go by. I just figured I’d go with the guy I trust.”  
  
“Okay, so I made some mistakes. I’m a new alpha and I wasn’t ever supposed to be. I’m trying to fix it. I don’t particularly like you, but if you wanted to join my pack I would try to be a decent alpha. Stiles would be good at it. He would be great as an alpha. I trust him and I want to make him my second in command if this conflict ends in our favor. But if he took you as his beta, and something happened to you in this conflict, I don’t think he’d ever forgive himself.” Derek realized that he had talked more to this werewolf than he had to many of the people in his own pack. And if Derek was being honest, he’d have to say that he doesn’t completely hate the guy. Actually, Jason is turning out to be okay.  
  
“Well, if things don’t work out with Stiles as my alpha, I will consider joining your pack, but I want to talk to all of them first. I want to know firsthand what kind of alpha you are. I’m not going to be controlled by a bad alpha, not after the whole alpha pack thing.”   
  
“That’s understandable.” Derek stood up. “Well, goodnight.” As he was leaving the basement, Jason called out. “Night, Derek.”  
  
“You are an idiot.” Derek turned toward the voice coming from the couch in the living room.  
  
“Why is that?” Derek asked Peter. He walked over to the couch where Peter was sitting and sat beside him.   
  
“Are you really going to let Stiles go through this? Are you really going to let him take on a beta.”  
“Well, I can’t really stop him. He can make his own decisions.” Derek shrugged. Yeah, he kind of hoped that Stiles changed his mind. But he wasn’t going to make the decision for him.  
  
“Well, let me put it this way. Stiles has always smelled like lightning, it probably has something to do with his magic. But when he just a baby, a little boy that smells like summer rain held him. And from that day on, Stiles has always smelled a little like rain. If he takes on that other boy as his beta, they will be together, all the time. Eventually, Stiles won’t smell like rain anymore. He’ll take on the smell of his pack. He’ll start to smell like red clay and pine needles. Which isn’t too bad, I guess. If you don’t like the smell of rain. But you’re right, you can’t make his decisions for him, but you can tell him your opinion.” Peter shrugged. “Anyway, go back to bed. I need to sleep.” He shooed Derek away. Derek went upstairs and got into bed reaching an arm around little Jack and resting his hand on Stiles’ hip before falling asleep.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not a whole lot going on in this chapter. Sorry about that.
> 
> I'll try to get the next chapter out sooner than I did this one. I get distracted easily.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you were reading this previously and I suddenly quit for over a year, I'm sorry. I had some family drama that made me take a break, and then I couldn't get the motivation to finish, and then when I got ready to finish I was embarrassed about not having written in so long. My husband told me to post it anyway, so that's what I'm doing. I'm hoping that actually posting it will give me enough motivation to keep going. I know that my story is so much out of line with the show now, so just consider this 100% AU. I just have an alternate Hale pack, and Alpha pack. But I might throw in a few characters we learned about in season 3 anyway. Also, I added a reference to Cora in chapter 6 so don't be confused when she ends up in the story later.

Peter woke up gasping. Eight years later and the memories of the fire were still giving him nightmares.

  
  


_“So, when did you plan on telling us about your secret girlfriend?” Peter looked over at Derek in the passenger’s seat and grinned._

  
  


_Derek was staring at Peter, mouth hanging open. “How did you...?”_

  
  


_“I make it my business to know everything.” Peter shrugged. “She looks way too old for you, Der.”_

  
  


_Derek looked glum. “Not that it matters anymore. She’s leaving town this weekend.”_

  
  


_“Good. If you can’t introduce the girlfriend to your family, then you don’t need a girlfriend. Why is she leaving?”_

  
  


_“She got in a fight with her dad so he’s making her spend the summer with her mom. But she said that he’s probably coming to get her soon, so she must have gotten back in his good graces or something.” Derek looked at Peter defiantly. “I love her, you know.”_

  
  


_“No you don’t. You are a horny teenage boy. You love what she can do for you.” Derek rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. He turned away from Peter and glared out the window. Just Great, Peter thought. I have an hour left until we get home and I have to deal with a surly teenage werewolf._

__  
  


_Forty minutes later, Peter started feeling pain and suffering coming through his pack bond. Derek was whimpering in his seat. Peter tried calling his family, but no one picked up. He could barely keep himself from shifting and howling when he called Jeanie. “Please pick up, Jean. Please be okay.”_

__  
  


_“Hey Wolf-boy, Ephraim and I are on our way right now. He’s anxious to see the pack.”_

__  
  


_“Something’s wrong with the pack! I don’t know what’s going on because Derek and I are still 20 minutes out. Don’t take Stiles! It’s really bad, Jeanie.”_  
  


_“Okay. I’ll call you when I get to the house.” Jeanie hung up. Peter wanted to get out of the car and shift and run, but that wouldn’t actually be faster. So he focused on driving, the howling of his nephew reverberating in the car._

__  
  


_The house was on fire. Peter could smell it even before he entered Beacon Hills and Jeanie confirmed it. She told him that she had called the fire department, but that was all she could really do. Before he pulled into the drive, Peter felt his brother and his oldest nephew dying. He felt the Alpha power become his._

__  
  


_Jeanie was standing in front of the house crying. So many were already dead, Peter knew his wife and children were gone. The alphas were gone. But there was one bond that Peter still felt. He raced toward the burning house, Jeanie calling after him. Derek tried to follow, but Peter turned his red eyes on his nephew and told him to stay there with Jeanie. Derek had to obey the alpha._

__  
  


_It wasn’t regular smoke. Peter couldn’t breathe. The air was laced with aconite and Peter knew then that this fire wasn’t an accident. He covered his mouth and nose with his shirt and raced downstairs. In the rec room, Jack had his leg crushed by a pool table. He had a hunting knife and was sawing at his own leg, trying to cut it off above the knee and free himself. Peter wondered why he didn’t just push the table off. Then he saw the wolfsbane bullet hole in the fleshy part of Jack’s calf. Shit! “Jack!”_

__  
  


_Jack looked up. “Peter! Watch out!” Peter looked up at where Jack was looking and barely saw the burning truss falling before it hit him and he was knocked to the ground. His femoral artery was severed and he barely had time to think that at least it was quick before he felt his life and the alpha power draining from him and drifting away._

__  
  


_“Peter?” Jack was leaning over him. “Oh thank God, Peter! You were gone and I...” He trailed off._

__  
  


_Peter tried to say something. He wanted to tell Jack off for coming over to him instead of focusing on healing, but he couldn’t. His face and throat were too burned and scarred to speak. Jack’s heartbeat was weak. Peter reached for Jack’s hand and pulled it to his lips, ignoring the fact that they were covered in blood. Jack’s heart beat slowed. “Peter, I lov-” He lost consciousness and his heart stopped beating. Peter frantically tried to heal his throat so he could speak. So he could say Jack’s name. So he could try to bring him back. If only he could heal, just a little, he might be able to save Jack._

__  
  


_“This one’s alive! Help me move this beam.” A fireman stood over Peter. As soon as Peter was free from the beam the firemen began to pull him outside; out of the building, away from Jack. Peter couldn’t speak. He did nothing and watched Jack die._

__  
  


_Peter hated himself. He didn’t want to live anymore. When the firemen pulled him outside, he just stopped. He shut down, quit healing, and quit caring. He wanted to die, wanted to be with Jack._

  
  


****

Stiles woke up with a start. The dream was so real that he woke choking on smoke that wasn't there. Tears rolled down his cheeks. Everyone else had already gotten up and gone downstairs, so Stiles just laid in bed for a few minutes letting the nightmare memory fade. Having the pack all there felt like home; but there was no space or privacy left in this house full of werewolves.

  
  


The last few days had been overwhelming. Amazing, but overwhelming nonetheless. He had magic. Real magic. It was so bizarre they he could barely fathom it. He felt like he actually belonged in Derek's pack of miscreant werewolves. What may be even stranger is that he no longer thought of them as miscreants and instead trusted them like family.

  
  


He had magic. It was so bizarre that he could barely fathom it. He had also created a place between life and death and saved his mother there. He wondered if he could access it again and see his mom and the Hales again. He decided to ask Wendy and Deaton about it later, he could probably do it on his own, but he wanted to make sure that he wouldn’t cause irreparable harm by accidentally misusing his magic. 

  
  


When Stiles got downstairs, his dad and Melissa McCall were cooking up breakfast for everyone. Derek was trying, somewhat unsuccessfully, to drink coffee over the little boy sitting on his lap while trying to talk to the rest of the pack. Wendy and Lydia were both trying to coax Jack away from his alpha, but he wasn’t having any of it and clung to Derek even harder. “...Erica and Boyd, go with Deaton, he’s going to check your injuries and take out some of those stitches.” Derek was saying. Derek looked up and saw Stiles and nodded at him. Stiles walked over and plucked the little boy off of Derek’s lap. He rested Jack on his hip and Jack immediately turned his face into Stiles neck. 

  
  


“Derek, hug Lydia.” Derek frowned in puzzlement at the order, then a dawning of realization came over him and he flashed a brief, but dazzling, smile at Stiles. Stiles smiled back. Derek stood and pulled Lydia into a sudden crushing hug, his cheek brushing hers. 

  
  


“What the...?” Lydia threw Stiles a puzzled look over Derek’s shoulder. The tips of her ears were turning pink, and her cheeks were getting red. Stiles understood that reaction, Lydia might be flawless, but she was being held by Derek freaking Hale. Watching them hug was kind of what Stiles would imagine staring directly at a supernova would be like; amazing, retina scorching beauty. The perfection made his eyes hurt, also his heart, if he was being quite honest. _If Derek and Lydia got together_ , Stiles thought, _their babies would be beautiful and smart_. 

  
  


When Derek finally stepped away, Stiles ignored to looks of incredulity from his pack and moved to Lydia and spoke to the boy on his hip. “Jack, this is your cousin, Lydia. She’s the smartest, most beautiful, most amazing girl I know. But most of all, she’s pack.” He hugged Lydia, putting his face where Derek’s had been seconds earlier. Then he held the little boy in Lydia’s direction. Jack tentatively leaned closer to Lydia, and then without warning launched himself into her arms. She looked up to Stiles with tears of gratitude shining in her eyes. Stiles imagined that it had really hurt her feelings that her little cousin had seemed to want absolutely nothing to do with her. 

  
  


Stiles moved to where Wendy was sitting. “Has he always been like this?” He asked. “About the touching?” 

  
  


Wendy nodded. “He’s never had a pack to help him get acclimated to people, and I was so scared and I think my fear rubbed off on him a little, as well. He’s never let anyone but Wolf and I touch him, until you and Derek. I’ve been telling him stories about you both all of his life, hoping that when your memory charm wore off you would bring us all back together again.” She sighed and smiled. “I’m glad we all got back together sooner rather than later. I wish it could have been under better circumstances, though.”

  
  


“What about school? I mean, he had to be around other people at some point, right?” 

  
  


She shook her head, “No, he freaked out the one time I tried to leave him with a sitter. It was lucky I knew how to set up a memory charm at that point, because it was absolutely necessary that night.” She grimaced. “Fortunately, being a photographer has its advantages and I just told anyone who hired me that my homeschooled children were coming with me.” 

  
  


Stiles’ dad came out of the kitchen. “Breakfast is ready. There are pancakes, eggs, bacon, and biscuits and gravy. Eat up!” Everyone rushed to the kitchen and started filling plates. “Try not to make too big of a mess of things, guys.” He turns to Stiles with a stern face. “I have to go in to work, call me if anything happens.” Stiles nodded. 

  
  


Melissa shrugged an apology, “I’ve got to head to work, too. I’ll be back this evening though.” She pulled Stiles into a quick hug, and kissed Scott’s forehead on the way out the door. 

  
  


Stiles looked around the room, and turned to Derek. “Where’s Peter?” 

  
  


“He just took off this morning. Said he ‘needed space.’” Scott supplied, with air quotes. “I say good riddance.” Stiles sighed. If Peter had the same dream he had, then he was off somewhere being heartbroken right now, alone. 

  
  


“I’m sure Peter will be in touch soon,” Derek said. “Meanwhile, you’ve all got work to do.” 

  
  


After breakfast, everyone left on their assigned tasks, leaving Stiles and Derek alone to clean up the kitchen. “What have you got everyone else doing?” Stiles asked Derek. 

  
  


“Wendy and Lydia and the kids went to Lydia’s to talk to her father and to look for information. Erica and Boyd are with Deaton, and the rest of the pack is with Danny. I told them to talk to him about what it would mean to be part of this pack, and I also want them to take a quick run around the preserve and the old house to look for something out of the ordinary. I told everyone to meet at the old house around 10 and we would work on training until lunch.”

  
  


Stiles nodded. He wanted to broach the subject of their not-quite-so-unwilling prisoner, but he didn’t know how. He tried to keep quiet, rinsing and drying the dishes as Derek washed them. They could have just used the dishwasher, but Derek wanted to do things hard way. Finally, he couldn’t take the quiet anymore.

  
  


“I don’t think I can do this.” Stiles blurted. “I mean, I can do it I just don’t really want to.” Derek looked at Stiles, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Jason.” Stiles clarified. Stiles looked at the dirty dishwater, avoiding Derek’s gaze. “I know why it would be good for the pack to have someone else fighting on our side, but I hate that the pack is fractured at all. And I _know_ it’s selfish, but I don’t want to have a separate pack from you. We just got our pack back together.” Stiles cringed at how emotional he sounded. 

  
  


“Stiles, look at me.” Stiles took a breath and looked up and caught Derek’s eyes. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. If you think Jason would be an asset to our pack, then I’ll offer him a place here. If he chooses not to join then we will let him go after we deal with the alpha pack.” Derek shrugged, and then added softly. “I don’t want us to have separate packs either.” 

  
  


Stiles smiled slowly. “I guess we should take Jason his breakfast and tell him what we’ve decided.” 

  
  


Suddenly Derek stiffened and his eyes started to glow red. “What?” Stiles asked, alarmed. “The alphas?” 

  
  


Derek shook his head. “Allison.” He growled. “She just pulled up in your driveway.” 

  
  


Derek started to head to the front door, preparing for an impending attack. “Stop, Derek. She can’t know that you’re here!” Derek stopped walking and frowned at Stiles. “At this point, the less she knows about what’s going on with the pack, the better. If she knows where everyone is it could be much worse. You just stay out of sight, maybe you can take Jason something to eat, and I'll talk to Allison, see what she wants?"

  
  


"I don't trust her." Derek admitted. 

  
  


"Neither do I. I'm not asking you to trust Allison; I'm asking you to trust _me_." 

  
  


"I'll stay out of sight, but I can't promise that I won't listen in. If she puts you in danger..." 

  
  


"She won't. Besides, I have magic now, remember. I'm much more dangerous to her than she knows." 

  
  


Derek nodded, and headed back through the kitchen toward the basement. 

  
  
  
  


“You look better.” Allison said as she eyed the fading bruises on Stiles’ cheek with a guilty look. 

  
  


Stiles’ sighed. “Why did you come here Allison?” 

  
  


“You weren’t at school yesterday.” She started.

  
  


“ _And?”_ Stiles waited for her to say something. He wasn’t going to give away any more information than absolutely necessary.

  
  


Stiles watched while Allison took a breath and steeled herself. She looked like his dad when he was going to launch into an interrogation. “And I want to know why. Something is going on. Something big. They were all acting secretive all day, even Danny.” Stiles guessed she was talking about the pack. “Is Danny a werewolf?”

  
  


“Why would you think I would know that?” Stiles answered her with a question. She gives him a pointed look. “Okay, but if I knew, why would I tell you?”

  
  


Allison’s face softened and she looked vulnerable for a second. “We are friends. Or at least we were. Something is going on and I want to know what it is. If you guys are in trouble, I want to help. I need to do it.” 

  
  


“Why don’t you just ask Scott?” Stiles asked her. “He’d be more likely to want to give you information that I would. It wasn’t very long ago that you watched as your grandfather dragged me into your basement to beat the shit out of me and you didn’t lift a finger to help. Friends don’t do that.” 

  
  


“I’m sorry, Okay?” Tears sprang to Allison’s eyes. “Oh god, I’m so, so sorry. I was so angry that you and Scott kept it a secret that Derek had bitten my mother. I was furious. Gerard told me that you had both kept it from me because you had chosen Derek’s side over me. And whether or not that’s true, I shouldn’t have allowed him to hurt you.” She reigned herself in and wiped a stray tear taking a deep breath. “I can’t ask Scott. I can’t trust him. He thinks he’s protecting me by not telling me things but he’s just...” She trails off. She doesn’t say anything, and Stiles doesn’t either. Part of him wants to call bullshit and say that she’s the one that is untrustworthy, but he remembers the warehouse and Scott’s surprise plan and he also thinks that Scott would benefit from being more forthcoming with the people he cares about.

  
  


Finally, Allison speaks again. “She was my mother, Stiles.” Tears began to spill down her cheeks. “I know now that she was not a very good person, and that she was trying to kill my boyf-... Scott, but she was still my mom. And I can’t help but think that if Scott would have told me the truth, if he hadn’t hid things from me, I would have been able to stop her from killing herself, or at least gotten a chance to say goodbye. I was so angry, and the things I did... I can’t believe I hurt people so badly.” She paused. “Do you know how I found out, Stiles? Erica! After I almost killed her, she was the only person who told me the truth. I know that Scott was trying to protect me, but I almost killed people because he didn’t respect me enough to tell me the truth. And now Erica and Boyd are missing, and it’s my fault. I tried to kill them. I made them scared enough to run away from home!” 

  
  


Allison was outright sobbing. Stiles pulled her into an awkward hug and let her sob into his chest. He rubbed a soothing hand over her shoulder and gave her time to calm down. Stiles still didn’t trust her and he wasn’t ready to forgive her, but he understood regrets when it came to losing people that you loved. 

  
  


On the last day of Jeanie Stilinski’s life, Stiles went to see her at the hospital as he normally did. She had told him that she wasn’t going to be around much longer and that she wanted him to know that she loved him, and that she wanted him to be good. He had called her a liar, because she had told him that she was going to try and get better and he thought she was quitting and wasn’t going to try anymore. When she tried to explain that she couldn’t fight anymore, he had cried and screamed ‘I hate you’ before storming out of the hospital room. When he calmed down and went back to apologize, there were a bunch of doctors in her room and they told Melissa McCall to get him out of there and she walked him back to the waiting room to wait for his dad. Stiles never got the chance to tell her that he didn’t hate her. 

  
  


“Allison?” He finally whispered when she calmed down. “I’m sorry you lost your mom. And I appreciate that you want to help, but can’t tell you anything without speaking to my pack first. If Derek wants your help, I will let you know.” It was as good as a no. Derek would never actively seek out an Argent for help. Neither would Stiles, if he was being perfectly honest.

  
  


“So you’re with him now?” Allison frowned. “I thought Derek wasn’t your Alpha?” 

  
  


“Scott said Derek wasn’t his alpha, I never said he wasn’t mine.” Stiles shrugged. “It’s complicated. I’ll let you know if we want to let hunters be involved. I can’t promise anything. I’m sorry, but my pack’s safety comes first.”

  
  
  


*****

  
  


Derek headed to the basement when Stiles went to open the door for Allison. 

  
  


“Alpha Hale, you aren’t the person I expected to see this mornin’.” Jason drawled when he saw Derek on the steps. “I expected Stiles.” 

  
  


“He’s been detained.” Derek looked at him. “I brought you something to eat.” He passed the plate over the mountain ash barrier, and let go when Jason took the other side. “Look, whatever Stiles decides, I want to offer you a place in our pack. I haven’t been the best alpha, but I am trying to get better.”

  
  


“He’s already decided, hasn’t he?” Jason frowned. “He doesn’t want me.” 

  
  


“He doesn’t want to split our pack, but we both think that you would be a good addition to the Hale pack, if you decide to stay with us. If not, we’ll let you go when we get things settled with your previous pack.”

  
  


“I still want to talk your other pack members, first.” Derek nodded and looked toward the door at the top of the staircase, wondering what Allison was talking to Stiles about. Jason noticed. “Hey, is something going on?”

  
  


“Stiles is up there with a hunter that tried to kill most of my pack. I need to open the door, so that I can hear what’s going on, but I need you not to bring attention to yourself.”

  
  


“You left Stiles up there with a hunter!?” Jason growled. “What the hell were you thinking?”

  
  


“He asked me to. And Stiles is perfectly capable of taking care of himself.” 

  
  


“Well, what the fuck are you waiting for? _Open the goddamned DOOR!”_

  
  


“Okay, shut up!” Derek went up and opened the door and he heard Allison’s voice telling Stiles that she wanted to help the pack if they would let her. Derek and Jason listened quietly while Stiles and Allison talked. Derek felt a flush of pride when Stiles called the pack his. 

  
  


Stiles finally let Allison out. He hadn’t given her any information about the pack and Derek was happy with the way that Stiles handled the situation. As soon as Allison was gone, Stiles headed down to the basement.

  
  


“You smell like that hunter.” Jason commented as soon as Stiles showed up. 

  
  


Stiles sniffed himself and shrugged. “She was upset.” 

  
  


Derek was on him in an instant pushing him closer to the wall so he could lean into him and put his scent back onto Stiles.

  
  


“Derek! What?” Stiles squawked.

  
  


“Sorry, you smell like _her_.”

  
  


“Oh.” Stiles nodded. “I’ll go change clothes before we leave.”

  
  


Derek finally stepped back and Stiles looked at Jason, blushing. “Sorry about that.” 

  
  


Jason laughed. “Oh, don’t mind me.” 

  
  


Stiles flashed a grin, and then grimaced apologetically. “I need to talk to you.” 

  
  


“You don’t want to be my alpha. I understand. I’m considering Derek’s offer.” 

  
  


“Oh, that’s good.” Stiles smiled at him. “You will really like our pack. They are awesome.” He looked at Derek, “If you are going to be Jason’s Alpha, you should talk to him. I’m going to go get changed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, I write my story on Google Drive and I just had hell finding a way to get it posted on here with my italicization in tact. Does anyone know a writing program that I could use and just copy/paste my story from? I have a chromebook so it has to be online.

**Author's Note:**

> If you want to, you can find me on Tumblr at togallifreyandbeyond.
> 
> I love feedback!
> 
> Thanks for reading! :)


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